Someone took an ax to the Christopher Columbus statue in Detroit
By Abby Phillip October 12 at 4:56 PM
Columbus Day: An American holiday for some, a puzzling example of twisted (and flatly wrong) history for others.
Whether or not you’ve had to work on the holiday, chances are you’ve seen a lot of questions about why Columbus Day is still a Federal holiday, and why it won’t go away.
Over in Detroit, someone was apparently done talking and decided to take matters into their own hands. The Christopher Columbus statue near City Hall was vandalized by someone who planted an ax right in the middle of Columbus’s head (with tape) and splashed the statue with red paint, according the Detroit Free Press’s Daniel Bethencourt.
The Free Press said the incident was reported around 2:30 p.m. Monday. The statue was first dedicated in 1910 to honor the city’s Italians, and it was restored and relocated in 1988:
The plaque also reads that Columbus is a “great son of Italy” who “discovered America.”
Of course, Columbus never stepped foot on North American soil, and many argue that he should probably be better known for infecting indigenous people (who were here first, by the way) with a host of diseases in the places where he did land.
But that aside, Detroit’s Columbus statue will undoubtedly be in need of some cleaning.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2015/10/12/someone-took-an-axe-to-the-christopher-columbus-statue-in-detroit/?tid=trending_strip_5
