PLYMOUTH - Four hundred years ago, as the legend goes (though, it remains to be seen what we are actually celebrating when we celebrate the Pilgrims. Perhaps, that is an article for another day), the Pilgrims sailed from Europe to America and they landed in Plymouth. Coming off the Mayflower ship, they stood proud at Plymouth Rock before centralizing their efforts on the act of creating a new community for themselves.
With the celebrations honoring this anniversary coming soon to the town of Plymouth, there will have to be a bit of maintenance done on a number of landmarks that mark this occasion. Earlier this week, in the night, four monuments in Plymouth were vandalized by a person or persons who were in possession of red spray paint.
The most shocking vandalism came against Plymouth Rock, which was covered in red spray paint, as shared by The Boston Globe. The marker bearing the year, 1620, was also covered up by the red paint.
Plymouth Rock, the iconic landmark that is inscribed with 1620 to mark the year William Bradford and other Pilgrims first set foot on American land, has been covered with red graffiti. https://t.co/AEHSEbGOQs
— CNN (@CNN) February 17, 2020
In addition to Plymouth Rock, three other landmarks were vandalized by the unknown criminals of Plymouth. The seashell sign that announced the 400th-anniversary celebrations that are right around the corner, the National Monument to the Forefathers and the statue of the “Pilgrim Maiden” were all adorned with red spray paint, as well.
Any reasoning for these acts is purely speculative, but one has to think that it comes as a form of protest for the fact that the stories of the Pilgrims are not full of wonder and pure spirits, but are actually tainted with aspects of colonialism, racism, and violence towards native populations. The red spray paint certainly points to that being a potential motive behind the vandalism.
To respond to these acts, Melissa Arrighi tweeted out a statement. She is the town manager of Plymouth and she did not mince words. She wrote, “We are saddened and sickened by the recent vandalism in our historic town...We will begin clean up as soon as possible and the police are investigating.”
Hopefully, whoever thought it would be fun to vandalize these monuments is found and added to some sort of restoration or clean-up acts. The celebrations are coming at the end of April so time is definitely of the essence.
Image via Wikimedia Commons
