Columbus statue trips, falls into lake

It’s a very long list but here’s an introduction.

He was an even worse human being than he was a navigator.

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And the really weird thing with respect to the USA is he never got close to to the mainland USA.

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I’m interested in the details of this. Statues are not typically known for being flammable really… :wink:

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Richmond has a lot of statues to slavers.

I think the city and the state can choose how the statues are taken down but I think they have no choice on if the statues are taken down.

I wish this could have been done without vandalism.

It could be argued that the authorities didn’t make that choice was not taken, so the choice was made for them.

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Like one of the UK protesters said regarding that other statue: “we tried going through the proper channels and nothing came of it so now he’s in the proper channel.”

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You think that wasn’t tried?

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I use the same technique with my kids, they have 3 warnings to pick up their toys, then they are mine (in timeout); I don’t put anyone/thing in river!

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[jay_sherman_fire.gif]

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Yes. I know it was tried. I saw the violence from those attempts. I acknowledge there is realistically no other way this was going to happen.

That doesn’t mean I can’t wish it could have done properly.

As long as you blame the government and organisations who keep these statues up that’s OK. The protestors only did this after decades of being ignored.

Remember, there aren’t many people who shed tears over the statues of Stalin and Saddam Hussein that were pulled down. Was that done properly?

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giphy

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This is why I refer to the protests using the name Michael Harriot created - the 2020 ‘Fed Up’-rising:

The summary doesn’t go back as far as Columbus, but there was an attempt to replace another statue of him in St. Paul, MN:

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Big Butter Jesus was gloriously flammable.

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Butter can’t melt steel!

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That’s right, which is why I’ve never been able to understand why the US has celebrated Columbus Day!
He wasn’t even looking for the landmass that we now know as America in the first place, he was about 5-6000 miles off from where he thought he was, so a complete loser, and not someone who’s exploits should be celebrated even on a basic level.

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Primarily because Italian American activists lobbied for a Columbus day holiday.

[ETA] It was first celebrated as a federal holiday after a mass lynching of Italian Americans in NOLA:

But it wasn’t made into a holiday until 1968.

[ETA 2] Here is an interesting overview:

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People in Bristol have been trying to get rid of that statue for 40-odd years, nearly half a century! Every time it’s been tried the Merchant Venturers have got in the way, and when their background is looked into it’s obvious why…

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While John Cabot goes largely unrecognized

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just realized something

trumpkins and pals are very likely to install a statue of him somewhere, likely while he is still alive, probably on some private donated land in DC or maybe on one of his properties (maybe all) or maybe at his “presidential library” (which still makes me laugh, the 5th grade reader who clearly bought his college degree the same way he paid for someone else to go die for him in vietnam, is going to have a library)

good luck keeping that statue around, it will need 24/7 armed guards

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