Bear with me, here…I am sad and not just a little bit angry. Sometime between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, the Christopher Columbus statue in Boston’s Christopher Columbus Park was beheaded. It will now be going into storage for an undefined period of time.
I have posted about this statue back when I lived in Boston. Politics aside, I have always admired the workmanship on this statue. It never felt like a “white man’s burden” statue to me (unlike so many other racist statues). Made or marble imported from Carrara, an ancient quarry in Tuscany, and erected by the Knights of Columbus, an organization dominated by Italian Americans, the statue (which is in Boston’s North End, the Italian neighbourhood), always seemed to be more about being of Italian descent than about Colonialism.
We didn’t go to Christopher Columbus Park very often, as there were closer parks along the Harborwalk, but I always liked going there with Jacoby.
It’s Boston’s oldest waterfront park. I wish we had gone there more often.
But I would be lying if I said I didn’t miss the unconditional trust I had with Jake. I could put him anywhere and he’d pose for a photo.
The Daily Abyssinian...and Singapura 
I too frequented that park ever since my high school days many years ago. I always loved going into Quincy Market and Faneuil Hall first shopping and eating, then walking across the street to the park to watch the sun set. Afterward I’d catch the train back to Davis Square for the long walk home.
I’m glad I was able to bring my son a few years ago as we have now moved to Central New York. Of course, my take on it is different than his.
It really is a shame that people had to destroy pieces of art, because that is what it really was, a piece of art.
And, like all art, everyone is entitled to their opinion. Don’t like it, walk away.
LikeLike
Yes! Thank you! I am so happy someone feels the same way that I do ❤
LikeLike
Sorry, I don’t understand this vandalism – pure destruction. What’s next . . the Paul Revere Statue, the Washington Monument, the Thomas Jefferson Memorial?!?
We cannot erase history – we do not have to glorify it but without remembering and rationally discussing it we ARE doomed to repeat it. If all the concentration camps were bull-dozed off the face of the Earth, there would come a time when no one would remember or KNOW what happened.
LikeLike
My human says I am a lot like Jake. So far she has been able to put me anywhere she wants a photo. OTOH, she’s more likely to be the one in a precarious position because she’s that kind of a photographer.
LikeLike