Kalamazoo’s Pioneer/Native American Bronson Park Fountain Gone
I reported to you back in October of last year that the Kalamazoo Commission discussed at a meeting what they should do about the “racist” interpretations of the Fountain of the Pioneers in Bronson Park.
Then in early March of this year Kalamazoo’s City Manager Jim Ritsema in a statement by him dated March 1st stated that he is recommending that the statue be removed from the Park.
Not long after that the Kalamazoo City Commission voted to remove the Fountain of the Pioneers amid complaints over its alleged racist iconography. Opponents of the statue said that it celebrated the subjugation of the native people of the Kalamazoo area under colonialist expansion, while others said the statue should remain since it serves as an important reminder of history.
Well they got their wish and after 78 years of the statues presence in Bronson Park it has been dismantled. They say that the statue will find a new home in a museum or art gallery, we shall see.
The activists who wanted the statue to be destroyed, dismantled or possible moved out of site can now be happy that they achieved their goal of wiping out history. I can only assume they will not be happy when people want a statue they like destroyed, but they did ask for it am I am sure they will respond with intellectual dishonesty.
They say the removal of the statue was about racial healing, what will they say if a different group of “activist” believe a statue of MLK or someone or something else needs to be removed for “racial healing”.
About this statue and their racist interpretations of it, I did not speak to a single person who saw that statue and thought of it in racists terms. Not one single person called into my radio talk show and said they saw this statue as racist. The only people who saw this statue as racist are those who wanted it brought down and I can only assume hold some racist or bigoted thoughts of their own. Only people who truly have racist or bigoted thoughts in their minds can see some object or action that is not clearly racist or bigoted and immediately go to racist or bigoted thoughts.
As I stated no one I spoke to or called into my show thought of that statue in racist terms until they were told it was by these activist. My concern is this will lead and should lead to the dismantling, destruction or renaming of many things.
If we destroy statues or rename streets and buildings because one activist group says we should then we must destroy other statues or rename streets and buildings because another “activist” groups believes we should.
Do you know of any statues or names of buildings or streets that you find offensive and should be dismantled, destroyed or renamed? Please let me know if you do.
Above all we should be intellectually honest in our destruction of history, wouldn’t you agree?
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