Columbus statue was smashed over the smallpox-blanket myth -- here are the facts

A Baltimore monument dedicated to the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus has been smashed at the base with a sledgehammer, as shown in a YouTube video posted Monday. The Columbus monument is the latest in a series of statues to be vandalized since the protest-turned-riot over the removal of a General Lee statue in Charlottesville.

A narrator in the “Popular Resistance” YouTube video calls Christopher Columbus a “genocidal terrorist,” in reference to the popular myth that blames Columbus for bringing smallpox laden blankets to kill the Indians.

“Isn’t that a fundamental misunderstanding of history?” asked Pat Gray today on “Pat & Stu.”

“Smallpox-blankets are an absolute confirmed fact to 99 percent of the people in the United States, and also me until very late in life,” said Stu Burguiere. “The truth is it was one incident, right?”

“The truth is somebody had smallpox, used the blanket, and it wound up with the Indians. They didn’t do it on purpose,” said Pat Gray. He then added, “And I don’t even know if that’s confirmed because how do you know that from 500 years ago.” He also pointed out that Columbus was a deeply spiritual man and “not a genocidal maniac.”

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