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‘Historical Pain’

First they came after Confederates, then slave owners. Now the city of Arcata, Calif., has decided to remove a statue of William McKinley, the 25th president of the United States, who was neither a Confederate nor a slave owner.

In fact, McKinley was raised an abolitionist, fought for the Union in the Civil War and held a progressive view of blacks, even appointing some to federal posts.

No, his crime was “colonialism” and the passage during his administration of the Curtis Act, which broke up the land of the “Five Civilized Tribes” (Choctaw, Creek, Chickasaw, Seminole and Cherokee) in order to sell it to white settlers.

A recent article in the Los Angeles Times on the effort described McKinley as “the most significant casualty in an emerging movement to remove monuments honoring people who helped lead what Native [American] groups describe as a centuries-long war against their very existence.”

“Is there a difference between honoring McKinley and Robert E. Lee?” Arcata Mayor Sofia Pereira told the paper. “They both represent historical pain.”

But paperwork has been filed with the city to create a ballot initiative that would give voters a decision on whether the 1906 statue goes or stays.

So the assassinated former president may linger a bit longer above the northern California city.