I took this photo about 5 months or so ago at the City of San
Jose. Because I had a feeling his days were numbered. There is a move in our nation
to remove anything offensive in order to push away things that are
uncomfortable. Our city council in San Jose has decided to bow to the pressure
and have this statue removed. They have given it or loaned it to the Italian
community here in San Jose. They have 6 weeks to remove it. What will take its
place, should be interesting. Maybe a statue of a politically correct 'god' that represents violence, oh wait we already have that, WHINE. One eloquent council member said, [he belongs in
the history books not as a statue in San Jose City hall.] WHINE!
Good or bad it is history. When history is removed and forgotten it will be repeated. Ol Chris was just trying to find a way to get to India and tried several times to get there. However unbeknownst to him there were two now known continents in the way. Lost in all this history is that Chris was a Jewish sympathizer and the countless number of Jews that were on these ships to escape the Inquisition of the Anti-Semitic Spanish government and Catholic church. So, because of Chris the Americas were found (discovered) by the Western Countries. If it wasn't Chris it for sure would of been someone else, and yes they would be removing his/her statue today. You cannot blame this man for the way the native peoples were treated by others that followed him. So where does this all end. Will we be removing the plethora of statues of Franciscan friar Junipero Serra?
He did way worse things to the
American natives than Ol Chris could ever think of, or did he? Will the
missions in California be torn down as they will be a reminder of what the
Catholics and Spanish did to the natives? If you have Spanish blood in you,
will you be ostracized and criticized and be held accountable for the sins of
your Spanish ancestors? Will we change
the name of all the CA cities named after these ‘concentration camps’ called
Missions, ie San Jose, Santa Barbara, San Diego etc? Stalingrad was changed to Volgograd and Leningrad was renamed St Petersburg(now there is a move
to name it Leningrad again). Will the name of the El Camino Real, a road found all up
and down in small and major cities alike be
changed as it linked all these ‘death camps’ together in its Highway? Will
these road side memorials and others like it be removed all up and down this
state?
If you want to hate the bad things that have happened in the past,
you have every right to do so. I feel these statues and monuments serve as
honoring and also reminding us of the good and the bad that has happened in
this country and state. By removing them we set a precedent that if you don’t
like it then we should have to remove it for you. Like the atheist with the
crosses. Or the Snake statue in San Jose that looks like a pile of poopoo.
A
statue of a ‘god’ that human sacrifices were made too. I personally do not like
or think it is appropriate to have a statue in our city center park that
represents such violence and hate. But I am not starting a petition to try to
have it removed. Maybe the ones that want these symbols of the past to be
removed need to take a lesson in tolerance..WHINE.
.
tol·er·ance
ˈtäl(ə)rəns/
noun
1.
1.
the ability or
willingness to tolerate something, in particular the existence of opinions or
behavior that one does not necessarily agree with.
