Proof that President Trump was on to something when he suggested that those who are going after Confederate monuments are going to go after other edifices occurred with attacks on statues of both Abraham Lincoln and Christopher Columbus. Meanwhile, Vice Magazine called for blowing up Mount Rushmore on Twitter.
Bust of Lincoln burned in Chicago
A bust of Abraham Lincoln was doused with lighter fluid and burned. The statue has stood in the Englewood neighborhood for over 90 years since Phil Bloomquist erected it in 1926. No one knows what issue someone had with Lincoln, referred to as the “Great Emancipator” and the president who led the United States to victory in the civil war.
The attack came on the heels of a Chicago pastor who demanded that a statue of George Washington be taken down from a park on that city’s south side.
Columbus statue vandalized in Houston
Meanwhile, someone doused a statue of Christopher Columbus with red paint that stands in Bell Park in Houston. The statue had been erected by a group of Italian American organizations in 1992 during the 500th anniversary of the first voyage by the Genovese sailor. Columbus has been the target of ire by the far left since his discovery of America led to the conflict between European settlers and Native Americans that led to the foundation of new nations in the Western Hemisphere, including the United States.
Vice demands that Mount Rushmore be blown up
Finally, Vice Magazine tweeted a picture of Mount Rushmore with the caption “Let’s blow up Mount Rushmore.” The tweet has since been deleted but not before a screen capture preserved it. To be sure the famous edifice contains the images of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, slave holders, but also shows Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt.
What is going on here?
The argument over Confederate monuments seems to have spread to any and all edifices that celebrate figures from American history whether they fought for the South during the Civil War or not. Attacks on figures such as Lincoln and Columbus suggest that the controversy is not about the evils of slavery and the treason committed by such men as Robert E.
Lee and Stonewall Jackson. The inescapable impression is that a group of people, small to be sure if current polls are to be a guide, are mounting an assault on the legitimacy of the United States itself. The campaign raises some uncomfortable questions as to how a group of Americans could come to hate the country where they were born.
