Destruction of property is loathsome. I hope they are caught, convicted, and do jail time in addition to community service. Destruction of historic monuments, NO MATTER HOW OFFENSIVE THEY MAY BE - is even more loathsome. Like it or not, this IS our history. As said by Santayana: "Those who cannot remember our past are doomed to repeat it."
We cannot and should not try to eliminate the symbols of our past. The past doesn't define our present but it is what led us to it, and learning from it is how we can improve upon it.
The statues belong in a museum - whether indoor or an outdoor park somewhere away from where the descendants of history's victims have to see it every day.
That said...
Christopher Columbus was a non-issue, and shouldn't ever have been mentioned in United States history. He had nothing to do with it, he never set foot on (what is now known as) American soil.
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