A Cloistered Brother on Tearing Down Statues

 

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Friday, June 19, 2020 11:32 AM                   Monuments and Statues

  As we see more and more unrest today here in the, Not so United States, partly because of another murder by law enforcement officers who shot a man twice in the back and then put their foot on him just in case he jumped up, we continue to pray for a peaceful resolution. The anger now has moved to many more issues the African Americans feel should be addressed and during a conversation I somehow found myself in the middle of the Monuments and Statues debate. It started off with the Christopher Columbus Statue in the North End of Boston which is predominantly an Italian neighborhood.  One person was defending the right to have it there and the other person a Native American felt that Columbus was no good and committed many crimes against his people, (that's putting it politely) when asked my opinion I said I couldn't really speak on the issue because I know only a little about him but I did hear he did cause pain and suffering for the Natives..... Then the issue came up about some 1600 Statues/Monuments that the African Americans say are very offensive and think they should come down because of their connection to slavery. People have been defacing all types of the different Monuments all over the country and further a field as they feel these men glorify the slave trade.

 This conversation can get very ugly, very quickly. What I said next left some people with their mouths wide open as I explained why there was so many Irish people all over the world.....42 million Americans claim Irish ancestry (some landing here as slaves as early as the 1600's ). Then we have all the Irish going to Australia on the Prison/Slave /Coffin Ships, and there are many other countries you'll find people of Irish descendent. Many didn't go willingly. One of the worst events to take place in Ireland was during the attempted Ethnic Cleansing of the Irish Catholics during the time of Cromwell, the Hitler of the day if you were Irish Catholic. A little known fact that I wasn't aware of until a few years ago was some 50,000 Irish men women and children who were shipped off to Barbados as slaves, crammed into Slave Ships just the same as the Africans and indeed on some of the very same ships. Many were poor, many were in prisons and others just disappeared from the highways and byways of the island of Ireland. They got the nickname "red legs" because of the redness of their skin from the scorching sun, men from the African tribe know as the Mandingo were strong and known to be fierce warriors were forced to rape the Irish women and girls to produce a hybrid worker, to learn about these things was like learning about what happened to the slaves from the continent of Africa no difference in this case....the whole nine yards, stacked on top of each other chained, shackled etc. I thought to myself about who these poor souls were? Where they related to me? What happened to their loved ones? How did they cope with the loss of a son, daughter , father, mother, aunt ,uncle, friend,? One day they never came home....this is just the Barbados episode because there was a lot more that would make your stomach turn, and if you were a Priest or an Nun you can forget about it. So, fair to say the Irish have had their fare share of slavery, discrimination, ethnic cleansing, war and so on.....not sure if they were ready for my answer about the topic at hand so I put it like this , I wouldn't want a statue of Cromwell any where in my country, I wouldn't want a statue of the men who captained the ships of human beings and were paid by the head, or were filling orders for Irish women to be sent to Barbados on their next trip to service the men, the younger the better for the brothels.....no I don't want a Statue of queen Victoria a few miles down the street from a mass famine grave just to give a couple of examples, so you can draw your own conclusion to what I think about the current climate regarding these men who are remembered with monuments and statues.

Who are all these people?  Wel,l I can't say who they all are but I do know that anyone who bought and sold human beings, or knowingly took part in shipping human beings shouldn't be celebrated.... I do know that some of these men went on to do wonderful things for the United States and its citizens..... Foundations were founded, scholarships were made, charities have been going to this day with some of these men's names attached and so on, so the question remains , where do we draw the line? What about forgiveness?? Will taking these Monuments down help heal this fractured country?? And of course people will say " its part of our history man " yep that's true, maybe we can open more museums where people can go if they choose?? I can only speak from my own heart and how I feel that it helps nobody to have Statues in someone's face to remind them of a painful past, it really doesn't. Should we put it to a vote to those who find it hurtful to see these things they feel need to go in order to move forward?? The thing is this if we don't stop and take stock of who we really are and what is really needed to live in harmony, we are only going to keep heading down a dark hole until none of us can see each other at all.

Forgiveness comprises, love and understanding.   It’s all part of this jigsaw, can we do it, of course we can, it won't be easy but it doesn't have to get any harder if we choose light over dark, love over hate, forgiveness over bitterness..... Ireland is a lot older that this country and God knows we were fighting for many, many years..... hopefully it won't take as long here to find some peace! There's always a smart ass who needs to put his two cents in the mix, this one asked me, what's next are we going to pull down Auschwitz Concentration Camp where all the Jews were murdered?, all I could say to that was no, because Jewish people never want the world to forget, and you won't find a Statue of Hitler in their town. One last thing that comes to mind tonight before I lock in, all over the world people sing Amazing Grace, I've been singing it for years in three different Prison choirs, the Police play in on the bagpipes when they lose one of their brothers or sisters on the force, as do our Firefighters, Military Members, Ordinary Folk, Black Life Matters Members, Civil Rights Groups etc., etc...its probably used almost as much as we use Happy Birthday, I never knew until about 18yrs ago that the man who wrote it was a Slave Ship Captain who was Shipwrecked I think off the coast of Ireland ....he never took part in the slave trade after that;  hence the song, I don't have the Google thing but if my mind serves me right his name was Newman....probably an English Ship.....just food for thought..... Thinking of you all tonight and praying for all of you.  In the end it’s all about love and hopefully Peace!!

 Thank you all for being in my life,  (Jazzer). 06-17-20. 9:30pm (US)