People who know me find it pretty interesting that it takes a lot to get me hot under the collar. I don’t have many red-button, go nuclear, 0-6 issues/topics. There are even fewer I will express emotions for publicly.
Somehow, Elliot Fuchs managed to hit a few all in one article.
In other words, there is so much wrong with this article that I’m going off. His words will be in italics. The link to his article for context is here:
…’We can honor Christopher Columbus with a statue, for his conquest which led to the creation of our great country, not the more unfortunate realities of his time period.’
I take issue with honoring a man who came, saw, and decided to just set up shop in a foreign land. Columbus was looking for an alternate trade route to the Far East – everyone wants to make a bit of money and reputation, I get it. But to stumble onto a land already filled with people, and decide that the Native inhabitants are fine slaves to send back to your Queen? Not honorable actions at all. Queen Isabella, for all her sins, saw the slaves Columbus attempted to give her as a gift and set them free. Ironically, the navigator and explorer was eventually brought home to Spain in chains.
To continue to honor Columbus now that we are more aware of what he did, the long term consequences of his actions are at best uneducated and at worse grossly ignorant.
…’When vandalizers deface a sculpted rock it’s silly because what they are defacing is not the person, but the objectively positive success that the particular individual was being honored for.’
Where do I start? Defacing a statue (while a nuisance, yes) is hardly silly. It is a form of civil (illegal, but civil) disobedience. If the piece of sculpted rock wasn’t problematic, it wouldn’t be defaced, now would it? Could be wrong, but I seriously doubt it.
To start, I take huge offense at the word silly. To call the expression another person’s pain, no matter how misguidedly directed, is viciously cruel. Agree or disagree but find a more mature and nuanced way to make the point, please.
People who feel the need to deface a statue aren’t doing so to desecrate any so-called ‘objectively positive success.’ They are doing it in an attempt to erase the inherent atrocities the person memorialized perpetrated. If you are a member of a group of people to whom said atrocities were inflicted upon,I support it as your right. Trust me, if I saw a statue of Tzar Alexander I, I would seriously think of at least spitting at its feet. At least. During the 1800’s, he was the ruler of Russia – home of wide spread, repeated pogroms and enforced army service. My father’s (a’h) grandparents on both sides (hailing from Odessa, Kiev and Riga) fled to America to escape both. They left behind everything except what they could carry and fled to major cities on the East Coast of the United States to start over.
It isn’t about objectively positive success. Eli Whitney of cotton gin fame is someone who did something that promoted objectively positive success. Columbus, Robert E. Lee? Instead of wasting the metal, how about it gets melted down for things that would truly help the people that were hurt by those who were memorialized? Let them decide what should be done. However, if they choose to send these symbols of oppression into the ocean or river, their call. If you really need to memorialize someone (Washington as the first President, for example) don’t make a statue of the man so that it is large and in people’s faces. In a Museum of History, perhaps, a display with a plaque with his contributions to American society (both good and bad) might be created. No one needs to see his face – there are paintings and pictures galore. He’s even on our dollar bill. You need to see his face, Google it.
…’ to the greatest, freest and most prosperous country in world history, where equality is attainable to anyone who seeks it.’
A country where anyone is systemically profiled and oppressed for something that makes them who they are (color, gender, ability, religion) is by definition not truly great, free, or prosperous. How can it be when there are people who are being held back by acceptably internalized prejudice and racism? Only people who can live their lives authentically, without fear of reprisal for simply existing are truly free. A country that gives opportunities to all citizens regardless of color, religion, gender, sexuality is great. A country that recognizes that each group within its borders has something that they can meaningfully contribute if they were simply free to live unafraid is a country that is truly prosperous.
Until every person of color, of religion beyond that taught in churches, of other ability, neurodivergent, members of the LGBTQIA+, every marginalized society that is so through no fault of their own is able to live a life free of fear, America will never be truly great, free, or prosperous.
…’A consistent American must support the American Flag in its complete glory, and despise the Confederate one and its unfortunate symbolism.’
Yes, despise the Confederate flag and all it symbolizes. Put one in the same hypothetical historical museum as a plaque of Washington. A consistent American must not merely support but actively pursue the ideals that the flag stands for – life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, freedom of religion for all. For all. Whether or not they look like you, talk like you, move like you, think and feel and act like you or not. Support one and all, or support none but for the love of Gd make stop making rationalizations. Support means that you accept that there are individuals different from yourself and you agree they have the same rights and liberties that you do.
People, in my opinion, make too many qualifiers and conditions to accept others. They are human. They were created of Gd, by Gd. Who are you to reject that which He made? You want support for your ideals and liberties? Then support others. Turnabout, fairplay, all that.
The American nation has taken a beating in recent times. We have lost hundreds of thousands of lives, we have lost credibility and esteem in the eyes of the world. The flag is faded, battered and in shreds. But it still waves because we know the way to restore its beauty and bright colors.
The question is if you, dear reader, will be a consistent American and not just support but actively pursue the ideals that our flag represents.
