Recently, the statue of Christopher Columbus has been the object of disgraceful actions of vandalism. These ugly acts have taken place in many cities throughout this country. Not just disgraceful but un American. The city of Lancaster has been no exception to these acts. In the past several weeks, our namesake has been mocked and efforts to defame him in history. History does not always portray a complete picture of events. If our country only picked perfect people to honor, there would be no Washington Memorial, Lincoln Memorial or Martin Luther King Memorial. No one is perfect we all have faults, that doesn’t erase the good many people do. I feel that these incidents are done by cowardly faceless individuals who just get joy out of this type of action. They are not protesters with a just cause. Just like looters,using the issues as an excuse to steal, these vandals are just troublemakers who enjoy a spotlight.
Thanks to several brothers who have brought this situation in Lancaster to my attention, I took some action to help protect our namesake. I was able to get in touch with A Lancaster County Commissioner Ray D’Agostino. I told him that we would put the Columbus Statue located in Lancaster at council 867 to protect it from further damage . The Knights would do all the manpower.
However, according to Commissioner, the Statue is safe and very little damage was done. They have a surveillance camera on the statue and they know who did the damage. He also said that the statue has been bolted down better. They cleaned off any graffiti and it looks good. So for now the County will keep the statue since it belongs to the people of Lancaster.
I told the Commissioner that if the county wanted to remove it for safe keeping that we can work together to do so.
Thanks to all the people who showed care and interest..
As Knights of Columbus we stand God, Faith and Country
John Radicone
Grand Knight