Christopher Columbus statue in Baltimore vandalized.

[kentuck]

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/347341-christopher-columbus-statue-in-baltimore-smashed

<snip>
A 225-year-old monument commemorating Christopher Columbus was vandalized early Monday amid the nationwide debate on removing Confederate statues and monuments.

A video posted on Monday shows the monument being smashed. It shows two unidentified people taping a sign reading "The future is racial and economic justice" on the monument. One of them then hits the monument with what appears to be sledgehammer while the other stands next to the monument holding a sign that reads "Racism: Tear it down."

"Christopher Columbus symbolizes the initial invasion of European capitalism into the Western Hemisphere. Columbus initiated a centuries-old wave of terrorism, murder, genocide, rape, slavery, ecological degradation and capitalist exploitation of labor in the Americas," the video's narrator, who identifies himself as "Ty," says.

"That Columbian wave of destruction continues on the backs of Indigenous, African-American and brown people," the narrator says in the video.

...more at link

[eleny]

1. Seems like monuments like this represent fake news

[kentuck]

2. How so, eleny??

Does it tend to validate the "alt-left" labels?

I have a small problem with violence. Columbus may have been all the terrible things that have been written but does that mean he didn't discover America? Does he being a xenophobic, racist murderer change the fact that he is credited with discovering America? But that is another question.

[kwassa]

3. "What you mean you discover us? We discover you!"

Stan Freberg knows.

[kentuck]

4. Yes. Columbus was lost. The native Americans discovered Columbus.

I think is more accurate.

[malaise]

10. Enjoy

[kentuck]

11. Thanks!

That's mellow!

[malaise]

12. Love Burning Spear

[kentuck]

14. Reminds me of an older Bob Marley...

[sprinkleeninow]

26. Hay now, I love Burning Spear!

Got a local station plays Island Reggae every Sunday afternoon. 🌴

[malaise]

34. LOL

Where are you?

[sprinkleeninow]

39. Below the Mason Dixon Line!

Back up north, our local radio station would offer ethnic musical programs on Sunday afternoons and I liked 'em. Hispanic, Polish (czardas and polkas) and so the Island music reminds me of times past.

I can PM you?

[eleny]

5. I meant the monument/memorial

A 225 year old piece of fake news. And I guess some people are just sick of it. Sorry for not commenting clearly!

I recently read an article about how Lithuanians created Stalin World in an area of Grutas Park in the town of Druskininka, Lithuania. The author said it "... also forces us to ask: how should we commemorate genocide?".
http://www.newstatesman.com/culture/2016/10/welcome-stalin-world-theme-park-made-old-soviet-statues

It's a spot on question regarding what went on in the Americas, too.

[kentuck]

6. Should the discovery of America be commemorated?

Even if it was by a genocidal maniac?

[eleny]

7. No, not a commemoration

[kentuck]

8. The discovery of America should not be commemorated?

Perhaps there could be a statue of Native Americans welcoming the immigrants to our shores?

[eleny]

9. You asked about a commemoration of a discovery by a genocial maniac

So, no. Not a commemoration for Columbus.

I'm not going to be concerned with coming up with an answer that pleases everyone. I can just understand how people could become frustrated by a memorial that honors that genocidal maniac.

[kentuck]

13. Maybe I was "over-thinking" it?

I suppose I was thinking of the discovery of America separately? From the person that supposedly founded America? Because of the type of person that Columbus was, America should not be commemorated? Something about that seems like a concealment of some sort??

[eleny]

18. I thought we were talking about commemorations of Columbus

Btw, now that there's evidence of Scandinavian settlements in Newfoundland existing before Columbus arrived there's a lot more to talk about than Columbus.

[kentuck]

19. Yes.

Eric the Red was a much nicer person than Columbus, I bet?

[eleny]

21. I doubt it, too

It illustrates how America is about way more than Columbus. Perhaps that's an opportunity for us to study about America without elevating explorers to heroic stature. It does take guts to travel the way they did and at the same time recognizing that they had feet of clay by some new standards developing today.

[eShirl]

32. Leif Erikson, not his father

[kentuck]

33. Thank you!

You are correct.

[FSogol]

36. The event was more of an "encounter" than a discovery. The encounter should be commemorated.

We can do that without glorifying Columbus.

[Adrahil]

16. The Vikings were in North America 500 years before Columbus. NT

[FSogol]

15. Christopher Columbus? LOL, anyone here ever serve on MIRT?

Will he show up here?

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10027254561

[kentuck]

17. How did I miss that one!?

[Maeve]

22. He was such a PITA

However...coming from a state where the capital is named for Columbus, I'm going to have to say that this is an unwinnable fight at this time. Yes, he was wrong on many, many different levels. He was also the one who got credit (blame) for opening up the new world to the old. He was an explorer and kick-started so much, good and bad (Oh, and being of Irish descent, I've got to mention St Brendan the Navigator here and note that even Genoa believes Columbus went to Galway before heading to Spain and ports further west) http://www.vanderkrogt.net/statues/object.php?webpage=CO&record=ie001

[Rhiannon12866]

25. LOL! GMTA!

As soon as I saw this thread, I bookmarked it and keep checking back! It's been awhile, but he is nothing if not persistent!

[DesertRat]

27. Don't say the name!

It's like summoning Beetlejuice!

[Warren DeMontague]

28. HOly FUCK

[liquid diamond]

20. He was such an asshole.

[ProgressiveValue]

23. Adam Ruins Everything did a great episode on Columbus.

[Buns_of_Fire]

37. +1 for Adam Conover!

Hell, let's put up a statue or two of HIM.

It makes more sense then the pigeon-dropping-catchers of Rump that'll probably be proposed.

[Warren DeMontague]

24. Neil Armstrong never raped, or cut anyone's hands off for not collecting enough gold

how about a statue of him, instead?

[jcmaine72]

29. No loss. In fact, decency alone dictated that it should be done.

I'm hoping Columbus Circle in NYC will be the next place to be cleansed both of his statue and his name. There should be absolutely no place for a Columbus statue or roundabout bearing his name in our nation's largest city and cultural and economic nerve center. Throw it in the harbor beneath the Statue of Liberty. Symbolically, that's precisely where a statue dedicated to a genocidal slaver belongs: Forever underfoot of liberty and freedom.

[Virtual Burlesque]

31. You might consider Vespucci as Columbus' substitute.

Amerigo Vespucci was the Italian navigator and cartographer who demonstrated that Brazil and the West Indies were not Asia's eastern outcroppings, but a totally new continent. Because of this. the new continents were named "Americas", deriving their names from Americus, the Latin version of Vespucci's first name.

At least Amerigo Vespucci discovered something. He discovered that Columbus was wrong, this land wasn't Asia.

[catbyte]

30. Well, this Ojibwe wouldn't argue & frankly, Columbus Day sticks in my craw, too.

I'm not crazy about celebrating the genesis of genocide in the Americas, but that's just me.

[Petrushka]

38. And . . . the statue of Christopher Columbus in Columbus Ohio?

http://www.10tv.com/article/downtown-protest-calls-removal-christopher-columbus-statue



. . . then . . . there's the decapitated statue found in a federal cemetery located in Columbus Ohio, a statue dedicated to Americans who died while prisoners of war there, Americans who, unfortunately, fought on the wrong side of an American war called "Civil."

http://www.10tv.com/article/confederate-statue-west-columbus-cemetery-vandalized