225-year-old Baltimore Columbus monument vandalized

A 225-year-old marble Colombus obelisk in Baltimore, the oldest of its kind in the nation, had its base smashed in by vandals early on Monday. The results were posted on Youtube, along with a statement that, since Columbus was responsible for the colonial exploitation of the indigenous, brown, and black people of the Americas, he was not a suitable subject for a monument.

This is the most egregious in a long list of defacements in recent weeks that have affected monuments to Lincoln, Columbus, Washington, Robert E. Lee, and Martin Luther King.

These are acts of war, no less than the destruction of churches and mosques by ISIS.

I suggest public lashing, which has had such a salutary effect in Singapore.

Twenty lashings for each miscreant, followed by a year’s unpaid labor repairing monuments.

A nation that does not have the will to propose and execute swift reprisal against cultural terrorism deserves neither its monuments nor the history which they commemorate.

6 thoughts on “225-year-old Baltimore Columbus monument vandalized

  1. “A nation that does not have the will to propose and execute swift reprisal against cultural terrorism deserves neither its monuments nor the history which they commemorate…”

    Brutally honest. Thank you, Lila.

  2. Hi Lila,
    Hope everything’s okay. You’re in Baltimore, right? I’m involved in a conference coming to Baltimore in August and you might be very interested. Send me an email.

    • Hi JayLib,

      I just got back on my blog. I’ve not been in Baltimore for a while. On the other side of the globe actually.
      Will be catching up with everyone shortly.

  3. Lila:
    So you’re back in Kerala?
    Anyway, I’m very happy to see you back on the blog, alive and well. (Unless They have secretly replaced you with an evil clone.)

    I had a good time in your onetime city. Also observed many opportunities to apply the very policies we were discussing to eliminate the blight, including the boarded -up blocks right in the heart of Inner Harbor, steps away from our hotel. These spaces represent opportunity — potential housing, commercial space, jobs, residents, customers– held hostage by “developers” who are actually nothing but speculators.

    We have been emphasizing the One Big Thing underlying (literally) all economics and all wars. The One Big Thing which is the reason why we can’t have all other sorts of nice things. Money is important, but not all-important – who distributes the land and the attached resources, without which we can’t do anything, and money is useless? Without access to space and resources, we cannot stand, sit, lie down, work, invest, consume, communicate, transact, travel, eat, drink, sleep, or perform other bodily functions.
    The questions of land and of other factors such as capital (both private and public) and labor are naturally connected, but in popular discourse – even in “free-market” circles – the land issue, distinct from those other factors, has been neatly sliced off and hidden away. As if by design.
    I recommend some of these presentations for your interest and your readers’. I recommend watching at least the first 20 minutes of the link below.
    The first presenter, Alanna, is a remarkable woman. I worked with her to promote this day-long event (part of a five-day conference). I’ve not been working very hard to share the videos after the fact, but I’m trying to catch up.
    She goes back 5000 years to the Vedas, Middle East, China, U.S., all in 20 minutes! Start at minute 1:05.
    https://youtu.be/2dEdR-ps8dE

    • Jay, thanks for the video. Will be very interested in hearing her.
      I have spent my time on personal stuff, but also reading a lot.
      It’s amazing how much the history we get in high school and college is blinkered.

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