A spiritual guidance and wellness counselor living nearby wants the town of Arcata, Ca. to get rid of its statue of President William McKinley, the noted imperialist, on whose watch the U.S. initiated the Spanish-American War; and also gained control of the Philippines, Guam, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Hawaii and the Wake Islands. As regular readers of Rosenblog know, Arcata is a town much concerned with shaping global policy, even as it struggles to get its population of Trustafarian vagrants under control and restore quality of life in the city's core.

The McKinley critic, named Michael Schleyer, has spearheaded a petition drive which collected about 1,300 signatures supporting the statue's removal. City staff estimate half of the signers actually live in Arcata.

What makes Arcata such a special place is that the city council and mayor are taking the request seriously. A public hearing was held last night and council deliberation has begun.

Staff has even worked up cost estimates for removing the statue.

Some called the statue a symbol of genocide and imperialism while others saw McKinley as part of the city’s history for better or worse -- a few musing that perhaps the city should ban nickels because President Thomas Jefferson owned slaves.....The discussion became boisterous at times with audience members booing and applauding the dozens of speakers who were almost evenly split on what direction the city should take. At one point, the mayor stopped the meeting to call for quiet.

...“Leave the statue where it is and clean up the city,” one man said. The nearly 100-year-old statue was given to the city by resident George Zehndner, who hired noted artist Haig Patigian to create the tribute to McKinley after he was assassinated in 1901. The bronze casting was dedicated during a celebration at the Plaza on July 4, 1906, after nearly being destroyed in the great San Francisco earthquake.

In order to remove the statue, the City Council would have to initiate a General Plan amendment, send the idea to the Design Review Committee, after which the issue would go to the Planning Commission before it would end up back before the council. There would likely have to be an Environmental Impact Report, which staff said could cost as much as the rough estimate for removing and relocating the 26-ton landmark -- $34,500. Staff time was estimated at $3,000 to $5,000. Ben Shepherd, director of the McKinleyville Chamber of Commerce, wrote a letter to the city saying he read about the effort to remove the statue in the Times-Standard and would like to see it placed in Pierson Park if the city decides to go ahead with the removal.

In The Arcata Eye, resident Rick Greene opines that if the council can't face down the ridiculous demands of the petitioners, there should at least be a public vote on whether to keep the statue or not.

I'll admit there's a particular statue I'd like to see removed from a public square in Seattle, but it has more to do with the propriety of honoring the spiritual godfather of 65 million-plus murders committed in the name of 20th Century communism. The McKinley statue represents, let's just agree for the sake of discussion, empire-building by an American president at the next-to-last turn of the century.

And what was so awful about that? Face it, expansionism was considered a political imperative in the latter half of the 1800s and into the 1900s, and countries such as France and England made the U.S. look like pikers. While we're at it, should we also insist that Mount McKinley only be referred to by its other name, Denali?

The latest sideshow in Arcata emphasizes yet again this loony little burg's aching pursuit of leftist orthodoxy, with the blessing of the city council and mayor. There was no need to even entertain the topic of the statue's political implications. To them, I say, Cripes: just provide water, police, fire, and sewer service, keep the parks clean, do something about the festering homeless problem, and trade your tin-pot political activism for a laser-like focus on economic development.

I'm expecting that a slate of Arcata City Council candidates from The Grown-Up Party will sweep to power. It won't be long now. Meanwhile, chew on this.

TECHNORATI TAGS: MCKINLEY STATUE, ARCATA

TO COMMENT: The regular "comment" feature is not in operation. E-mail comments to address under "Contact" on main page masthead, and I'll add them, here.

P. Scott Cummins: I am proposing that Rosenblog be the headquarters of "Dump Fremont Vlad & Swap for Arcata Bill" - I will personally arrange for trucking and hoisting on this! Arcata needs their Lenin statue...

James J. Na of Guns and Butter has a value-added link to my post, here.

UPDATE, 10/23/05: The statue will stay for now, but a public vote could come in the future.

Posted by Matt Rosenberg at October 20, 2005 05:18 PM