John Adams once wrote: “America … the opening of a grand scene and design in providence, for the illumination of the ignorant.”
Unfortunately, this week, the “grand scene and design in Providence [R.I.]” “illuminated” rather than eliminated the ignorance of our times. Liberals in that city, including the mayor Brett Smiley, demanded the removal of a mural in the memory of Iryna Zarutska, a young woman murdered on a train. Unlike memorials to figures like George Floyd or others, a memorial to the young white woman was deemed triggering and “divisive.”
On Aug.22, Zarutska was stabbed to death in a random and unprovoked attack on a light rail train in Charlotte, North Carolina. Shocking surveillance video of the incident showed suspect Decarlos Brown Jr. allegedly stabbing Zarutska in the neck before walking away. Brown has a long record in the criminal justice system with more than 14 arrests and prison stints of five years.
The mural was set on the exterior of The Dark Lady, an LGBT bar in Providence. The bar immediately became the focus of a cancel campaign and eventually caved.
Providence’s Democrat Mayor Brett Smiley then joined the mob and denounced the mural to Zarutska, calling it “divisive” and saying that it “does not represent Providence.”
He seemed to strike out at artist Ian Gaudreau and said that the city would “support local artists whose work brings us closer together rather than divide us.”
Providence is not the only place where these memorials have been defaced or destroyed. In Chicago, a mural to Zarutska was defaced.
Gaudreau lashed out at the campaign and the local politicians who destroyed his artwork as an attack on free expression.
Smiley and other Democrats, however, piled on the artist and the work as an attack on minorities and a message of white victimization.
Smiley told WPRI that memorializing this young woman is an effort of right-wing billionaires, and it found its way to our community.”
“I didn’t stifle anyone’s speech, it was his decision whether to continue with it or to take it down, but it certainly wasn’t bringing us together as a community…so I don’t think we’re a stronger, more united community because of this mural, and so I thought the best thing to do was just to take it down.”
What is most striking is how hypocrites like Smiley actively fuel this rage while insisting that they are the voices of tolerance. He and other liberals in Providence cannot tolerate even the image of a murdered young woman in their city.
This is a city that loves to repeat its motto, “What cheer, Netop,” the greeting from 1636 from early interactions with local Native Americans, meaning “Greeting Friend.” It seems the faux welcoming culture doesn’t extend to those with opposing views or different values.
The mural “wasn’t bringing us together as a community . . .” (Mayor Smiley)
So on the Left’s view, knowledge of the brutal murder of an innocent young woman divides us. While evasion of that horror unites us.
What a perfect statement of a perfectly wicked Leftist premise:
Keep the collective, the unwashed masses ignorant. We can manipulate and control the ignorant. The knowledgeable — not so much.
There are tens of thousands of murder victims you don’t care about. The only reason for faux concern about this one is because Trump and the Republicans made it political.
OT. PBS, TV station is antisemitic or specifically anti- Jewish. It’s disguised as a program about Jesus Christ. It’s an intellectual study of the gospels uh hem. It shows Jesus walking through the streets dark and swarthy with a hooked nose. Flashes of signs on buildings with money changers. The crowd that gathered at the crucifixion were “Jews”. I turned it off.
Amazing
Happy Easter, good passover…
These politicians in Providence are a disgrace. It is not enough this woman died terribly, but to say she is not worth veneration or deserving of a memorial shows the true content of their character.
Speaking of which, I guess the mayor should begin denouncing tributes memorializing the death of Dr. King, since it was devisive to someone out there that didn’t like what he stood for. We should ask the mayor if he would condemn tributes to murdered civil rights workers according to his “divisive” excuse. But really, why bother, since this mayor is such a consummate schmuck he isn’t really worthy of wasting anyone’s time.
Darren: “But really, why bother, since this mayor is such a consummate schmuck he isn’t really worthy of wasting anyone’s time.”
He’s worth the time of decent people in Providence, if any there may be, to drive this waste of skin from office in disgrace.
If you didn’t send flowers or a note of condolence to the family, the only reason you post here about it is because you believe the killer’s immigration status was the only important fact and not the tragic loss of the victim. This was not a memorial to her. If it was it would be by immediate friends or family, or it would be a memorial to numerous victims in the community. If the memorial was about her alone by someone who never knew her, it was a politicly motivated attack on all immigrants.