Yesterday was a great victory in that mobilizing at the last minute, we’ve generated thousands of signatures for this petition to keep the statue where it is, and dozens of us showed up yesterday to pray and or show support for the statue to counterbalance those that showed up to demand that it be removed.

I was down on Main street the whole-time gathering signatures for the petition with my good friend Harry. I can say that probably 9 out of 10 people that stopped supported KEEPING the statue where it is, and many were basically angered by the idea that it needs to be removed. They also cited this current PC movement sweeping across our nation to rid ourselves of ‘offensive’ monuments and statues. (ironically, they’ve torn down a statue of U.S. Grant in San Francisco; because he once owned a slave?) -hasn’t anyone heard of ‘redemption’?

A few woman, one older and a few younger that passed by informed me that the statue of Serra needed to come down because he was involved in ‘genocide, rape, etc.’ The older woman and I actually had a great conversation, while the two younger ones that obviously were part of the pro-removal movement simply walked on when I wanted to engage them in conversation.

What I can gather is that most of these young people have been given a very narrow lesson on history: Imagine if in 200 years we talked about ‘the history of US policing’ in the late 20th and early 21st century, and we described it as ‘shooting unarmed black men’ and ‘urban detention camps’. This would obviously be painting history with an extremely broad stroke based on a relatively few, rare incidences, or just simply telling a false narrative. Its as if these students have deliberately been given a singular-themed and motivated version of the Spanish missions under Serra; only the negative stories…none of the positive ones. Nor have they been taught the true motivation of the Spanish crown and its missionaries.

My next step is to see if there is any legal action that could be taken to delay the removal of the statue (which at this point seems eminent). Nevertheless, I will be contacting the mayor’s office tomorrow to inquire about the supposed community discussion that is to take place before a final decision about the statue by the mayor and city council members. I will also present all the signatures from this petition to them.

Again…THANK YOU for your help, and remember that we CAN fight back against this destructive effort to remove our past.

Pat Rea