Christopher Columbus statue in Revere, MA

The city of Revere, Massachusetts is home to a wonderful, beautiful, and (sadly) rare thing: a statue of Christopher Columbus. Located at St. Anthony of Padua Church, the bronze statue is now a lovely light green and depicts the explorer gazing skyward and pointing to a globe with his right hand. The statue was made by Alois G. Buyens in 1892. He was originally located at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in the South End of Boston but moved to Revere in the 1920s. He and a statue of St. Anthony stand on either side of the church’s front entrance. 

Here are some photos of this version of Chris, who has so far (knock on wood) managed to survive the genocide that has claimed so many of his brethren. 

DSC02739.JPG

DSC02551.JPG

DSC02547.JPG

DSC02698.JPG

DSC02552.JPG

Naturally, there are people for whom the existence of even one cool, beautiful, and good thing in the world is too much to tolerate. 

How someone could consider the obliteration of something magnificent, wonderful, and precious to be “the right thing” is incomprehensible. Nothing could be further from the truth. Additionally, this person’s threat to forcibly tear down the beautiful statue unless the church complies with his/her demand is beyond despicable. Thank God that the church has not (knock on wood) given in to intolerant bullies such as this person, and that the threat has so far (knock on wood) proven empty. 

Yes, because it totally makes sense to treat prejudice against the Italian-American community (prevalent in the late 19th and early 20th century) as a positive thing.

Yes, Venezuelan youth showed the city, country, and continent how to be intolerant bigots and bullies who care about no one but themselves and no cultures other than their own. They showed the world how to viciously assault, destroy, and brutalize a beautiful, brave, and remarkable man who did nothing to deserve such treatment and is unable to defend himself. I’m not sure why anyone would consider that a good thing.

Seeing images of what these despicable excuses for human beings did to this innocent statue makes my blood boil and my heart shatter into a million pieces, as does reading tweets that portray these actions as positive and call for the destruction of one of the few such statues remaining in the world. I condemn these reprehensible actions and these reprehensible tweets in the harshest possible terms.