Rioters in Portland Damage Statues of Lincoln and Roosevelt as Part of Columbus Day Protests

As part of a Columbus Day riot, a group of vandals and anarchists decided that the best way to express outrage at famous Italian explorer Christopher Columbus was to damage and vandalize the statues of two men who were born about 350 years after his death. Demonstrating, once again, the growing ignorance of history and a hate towards American history.

Columbus Day was actually first celebrated in 1792 in New York City and Boston, to commemorate the 300th anniversary of his historic discovery and the new country where they lived. One hundred years later, the holiday was celebrated again, under the direction of President Benjamin Harrison following the lynching of 11 Italian immigrants in New Orleans. It was an effort to appease the growing number of Italian Americans and shore up relations with Italy.

By 1934, due to lobbying by the Knights of Columbus and other Italian Americans, Congress established Columbus Day. The statute stated, “The President is requested to issue each year a proclamation (1) designating October 12 as Columbus Day; (2) calling on United States Government officials to display the flag of the United States on all Government buildings on Columbus Day; and (3) inviting the people of the United States to observe Columbus Day, in schools and churches, or other suitable places, with appropriate ceremonies that express the public sentiment befitting the anniversary of the discovery of America.”

A little more than 130 years later, instead of commemorating Italian and American relations, Columbus Day is now mired in controversy and a magnet for groups interested in damaging America’s history and heritage by labeling the discovery of the two continents a precursor to genocide.

On Sunday in Portland, vandals and rioters against Columbus Day vandalized and toppled statues to Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt as part of the “Indigenous Peoples Day of Rage.”

According to reports, protestors threw chains around the Roosevelt Rough Rider statue, and used blowtorches to remove the statue from its base and pull it down. They also threw paint on it. Then the group moved onto the Lincoln statue, before finally vandalizing both the Oregon Historical Society, stealing an artifact inside, and the Portland State University Campus Public Safety office.

The group, who independent journalist Andy Ngo identified as members of Antifa, also shot inside the Heroes American Café in downtown Portland, which puts “photos of first responders on its walls.”

What does all of this have to do with Christopher Columbus? Absolutely nothing.

In this era of political correctness, progressive politics and anarchy, history and fact are now seen as inconvenient to the agenda of those that hate America.

Christopher Columbus wasn’t trying to kill or destroy native communities throughout the Americas, the man literally thought he had landed in India initially (hence why native communities are called “Indians”). It was only until a bit later than he really understood the magnitude of what he had discovered.

And the diseases that killed many native communities, which is often the focus of the “rage” against Columbus, were hardly understood. The knowledge of how disease immunity works would not be properly understood for centuries.

Conquering territory is also part of the colonization process and has been done by every culture in every century. It’s not just a sin of Columbus and certain Americans, but a sin that has followed all of mankind since the Garden of Eden.

But history and truth no longer matter. It is about the “rage” and emotion felt by certain people, and exaggerated and influenced by the American education system, that has given rise to this generation who are so historically ignorant, that they destroy statues of two men who were separated from Columbus by 350 and 400 years, respectively.