Eradicating history

Not surprisingly, the city of Helena has caved in to demands by Indian legislators to remove a memorial to Confederate war dead. Montana’s Indian legislators are bringing ridicule upon themselves, as they have no problem with monuments that honor the United States, which conquered, subdued and exploited them. Meanwhile, the mere existence of a monument in tribute to the Confederate states that were treated similarly by the United States during and after the Civil War, and never had any meaningful contact with the tribes of Montana, strikes terror in the hearts of these once fierce warriors.

Some things that a truly, open-minded Montana citizen should ask are:

— Do Helena city ordinances allow for such unilateral decisions with no formal vote or referendum?

— What evidence indicates that violence may occur if the monument is left standing? Absent out-of-state agitators that are routinely recruited via Craigslist for demonstrations, what citizens of Montana are at one another’s throats over this “offending racist statement” that few of us were aware even existed until our gutless leaders decided that it must be removed to prevent us from assaulting one another?

— How does a monument rationally offend a group never affected by the existence of the Confederacy?

— Should we next remove all references to slave-holding Founding Fathers from all public displays?

— Should we not remove all monuments and memorials dedicated to the segregated and sexist military of World Wars I, II and other conflicts?

— Should we not also remove all Vietnam memorials, as a disproportionate number of minorities were drafted to serve during that conflict?

Let’s get busy, Montana! There is much history to erase! All of it offends someone!

Lewis & Clark, for example, were both slave owners. In fact, Meriweather Clark is described historically as one who routinely abused his slaves. The “Lewis & Clark” reference should be removed from every county, street, park and other publicly owned venue and replaced with a title that does not bestow honor on those racists. I suggest “The Great Northwest Expedition.”

During their expedition, those racist explorers named numerous natural discoveries after racist federal officials back East. Do we really want a county, a river and who knows what else named to honor James Madison, a lifelong slave owner who wanted to solve the problem by dumping all slaves on a beach in Africa, against their will? Does anyone doubt that Thomas Jefferson was a racist slave owner as well? Why must I be reminded of him whenever I cross a certain Montana river; rename it the Sacajawea River. Are Montana officials going to stand tall and whitewash our history like ISIS, the Taliban and communists have done worldwide, or are they going to stop with a single symbolic gesture?

Meanwhile, elsewhere, victims of white supremacists have moved beyond Civil War monuments to fight an even bigger villain: Christopher Columbus.

Recently an event titled “Reclaiming our history: A Detroit without white supremacy” by its organizers on Facebook, resulted in the vandalism of a monument to Christopher Columbus when organizers could not locate a confederate monument anywhere in Detroit.

The group overlooked nearly four centuries of American white supremacy in leaping from 1861 to 1492, leaving much work to be done. They should further consider reaching at least back to Roman Emperor Constantine, who began the alliance with Catholicism that led to “missionaries” whose real purpose was white colonization, theft of natural resources, slavery and genocide. Every Roman artifact and every Catholic Church must now be removed. Don’t pin everything on a handful of 1860s-era white guys; go after the true source of your oppression.

Hispanic citizens should also be recognized for what they are — descendants of the Conquistadors that came after Columbus and destroyed great civilizations in much of South and Central America. Clearly, the only blameless citizens in America are Native and African Americans.

Scott Rogers is a resident of Kalispell.