Liberals will stop at nothing to fundamentally transform this country. In their zealous quest, leftists are attempting to wipe out hundreds of years of American history. According to TheBlaze, on January 20, 2019, Rev. John I. Jenkins, the president of the University of Notre Dame, revealed plans to cover up Christopher Columbus murals created in the 19th century.
Jenkins referred to the stunning works of art, painted on plaster walls at the college’s main building, as “at worst demeaning” toward Native Americans. He also maintained Columbus’ arrival in America represented “nothing short of a catastrophe” for these individuals.
In a letter to the Notre Dame community, Jenkins said he’s “heard from students, alumni, faculty, staff, representatives of the Native American community, and others on this complex topic” and ultimately “decided, after consultation with the University’s Board of Fellows, on a course that will preserve the murals, but will not display them regularly in their current location.”
Notre Dame’s President revealed that the murals are presently located in “a busy throughway for visitors and members of the university community.” He insisted the current location isn’t “well suited for a thoughtful consideration of these paintings and the context of their composition.”
As a result, a woven fabric will cover them. But, Jenkins promised the fabric can be removed for special occasions. He also vowed people will be able to view high-res images of Luigi Gregori’s works of art. Of course, the time and location of the installation of these high-res images hasn’t been announced yet.
Jenkins explained, “Our goal in making this change is to respect both Gregori’s murals, understood in their historical context, and the reality and experience of Native Americans in the aftermath of Columbus’s arrival.” Notre Dame’s President went on to add, “We wish to preserve artistic works originally intended to celebrate immigrant Catholics who were marginalized at the time in society, but do so in a way that avoids unintentionally marginalizing others.”
Not everyone was happy with this high-jacking of American history at one of the United States’ most hallowed institutions for higher learning. The chairman of Young Americans for Freedom at Notre Dame, Luke Jones, said in a statement, “We are calling on the University of Notre Dame to act quickly to overturn this decision and proudly display the remarkable artwork depicting Christopher Columbus.”
Regarding the decision to cover up the murals, he added, it’s “not a political issue or an issue of racism and bigotry as claimed so ridiculously by some students and legitimized by the university’s actions.” Jones rightly maintained, “at an institution of higher education, students should not be shielded by drapes from ideas they may disagree with in the name of political correctness. If the university continues to cater to groups who claim offense, at what point will the censorship on campus stop? Will the Vietnam War Memorial be next?”
Notre Dame’s expulsion of Gregori’s murals certainly isn’t the first instance of the left trying to pretend Columbus didn’t ever “sail the ocean blue.” In November of last year, a statue of the explorer, which had stood for 45 years, was removed from a park in Los Angeles according to Patch. In addition to a news conference, the removal event reportedly featured a Native American ceremonial dance.
At the time, Mitch O’Farrell, a Los Angeles City Councilman, said, “Columbus himself was personally responsible for committing atrocities and his actions set in motion the greatest genocide in recorded history. His image should not be celebrated anywhere.”
In 2017, the L.A. City Council and County Board of Supervisors approved an initiative to abandon the Christopher Columbus holiday they celebrated in October and supplant it with Indigenous Peoples Day.
2018 also marked the first time Columbus, Ohio didn’t officially observe the holiday created for the man after which it was named. The city allegedly canceled Columbus Day so it could celebrate Veterans Day in November. According to USA Today, the municipality claimed it didn’t have enough funds to permit federal employees to take off both Columbus Day and Veterans Day as reported by the Daily Caller.
However, the move was suspicious as it occurred when cities across the United States ceased celebrating Columbus’s explorations in favor of honoring the Native Americans who already inhabited the lands the famed Italian discovered.
