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The Disrepair of the Captain John Smith Memorial3 min read

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Caption Smith Memorial With 2 Turk Heads Atop
Caption Smith Memorial
With 2 Turk Heads Atop

In light of the whole Times Square Mosque, I thought to remind us that perhaps we need another kind of memorial – like the heads of our enemies enshrined in stone – on pikes.

Ok, I’m being a little overzealous and brutish, but I just wanted to give some perspective on our contemporary overcompensation towards ‘tolerance.’  Our lack of ability to label evil as evil (read “Islam as evil”) is foolishness masked as fairness, submission masked as tolerance.

Monument in disrepair
Monument in disrepair

WND has published an interesting article about Smith entitled Our most politically incorrect Founding Father.

What was so incorrect about him?  Well, only that he was an ardent and outspoken Christian, statesman, and warrior.  In fact, his exploits in war were so impressive that the original John Smith Memorial monument, shown here, was adorned with sculptures of three severed Turk heads, memorializing one of his great battles. Now THAT is politically incorrect.

All that is left of the monument today.
All that is left of the monument today.

The WND article discusses the origin of this monument:

It was 1864 when the Rev. George Beebe determined that America needed a monument to the Christian warrior who first named that stern and rock-bound coast “New England.” The warrior was the former president of the Jamestown colony.

The decapitation incident celebrated by the three stone Muslim heads was just one of hundreds of vignettes from the life of a man who, like the Star Island monument itself, represents all that the political correctness police of the 21st century find so unacceptable: cool headed, firm resolve and manly confidence in the advance of Christendom.

The specific incident in question involved an episode in Smith’s life where he found himself in Romania fighting the Ottoman Turks. When Lord Turbishaw, the Muslim commander, announced that he would battle any single Christian in mounted one-on-one combat, John Smith accepted the challenge. Before thousands of onlookers, a 22-year-old Smith lanced Turbishaw and then lopped off his head in David-over-Goliath-like triumph. Smith proceeded to do essentially the same to a ferocious warrior named Grualgo, and then again, to another Turk named Mulgro. For his heroic deeds, Smith received an insignia bearing three Turkish heads.

Not bad for a guy who was 5’3″ tall!  He had a lifetime of exploits, not least of which was surviving the difficulties of the initial colonial settlement at Jamestown.

Original Monument Sketch with the heads of 3 Muslims Atop
Original Monument Sketch with the heads of 3 Muslims Atop

Though the monument was partially restored in 1914, but not with the three heads, as far as I can tell from this pictorial history of the John Smith Monument.

You can also read more about the monument at The Ugliest Monument in New England (and here’s another good article with the same title). It looks like a corporation purchased the island in 2006, and is working with a historical society to rebuild it for Smith’s 400 Anniversary – but I bet it won’t have three Muslim heads on top.  But maybe it should, to remind the world that Islam has always been an enemy of freedom.