This is an idea which I think has been shared with many others in our community for decades. Why is President McKinley still the center of our community? Is he really who we want representing the center of our community? We could remove this statue and in its place erect a monument or other installation that is representative of peace, unity, healing, compassion, supportive of nature, the environm
ent, and equality. The Arcata plaza is the center of the mandala of our community; lets make the central icon one of unity not a reminder of a dark past. Please see some examples of other monuments in photos below. First phase= Form a group of volunteers. Consult the city counsel and crowd source funds to create a ballot initiative to remove the statue and replace with a monument or tree that better represents the values of our community. We work to get this on the June 2016 ballot as that is when we vote on the primary presidential election and we will have the biggest community turn out. Or we place it in the November Presidential elections ballot. First phase= We form a group to gather signatures to place on the ballot and form the project. Second phase= If the Initiative is a success we then move on to crowd source the funds to raise the money to commission the building of the monument. We source local and famous artists to offer design ideas. We then have an event where people can come and vote on their favorite design idea. We take care to make sure the statue is not insulting to different peoples and represents positive core values. If the statue contains representatives of indigenous cultures we take care to assure the representation is healing and not insulting. Third Phase= The voted piece is installed. We have a day of celebration and invite local leaders and religious leaders to come and offer prayers/songs/poems of peace, compassion, healing, unity, and equality. The foundation has a hollow area where everyone in the community may offer a small 2 inch (so we can fit thousands) in length rolled up prayer, poem, song, crystal, or symbol of peace special to their culture and beliefs (nothing hateful). We place the tree or statue over the “Peace Generator Capsule”.
