A statue commemorating a local Spokane hero has become the center of controversy among the woke crowd.
According to Wikipedia, John Robert Monaghan was born in 1873 in Chewelah, Washington Territory. John was in the first graduating class at Gonzaga University and went on to graduate from the Naval Academy in 1895. Monaghan served as an officer on several ships including the cruiser USS Philadelphia, which was then the Pacific Station’s flagship.
During Monaghan’s time in the service, the United States was competing for control and influence in the Pacific along with the U.K. and Germany. America became embroiled in a civil war on the militarily strategic island of Samoa. The Samoan conflict erupted violently and sporadically between 1887-1898. Imperialist Germany backed one particular Samoan faction while the U.S. and Great Britain backed another.
As for Monaghan , there is no doubt that he served with bravery and distinction during the conflict. A statue honoring his memory was erected in 1906 in downtown Spokane, Washington.
The inscription reads: “During the retreat of the allied forces from the deadly fire and overwhelming number of the savage foe, he alone stood the fearful onslaught and sacrificed his life defending a wounded comrade Lieutenant Philip V. Lansdale United States Navy.”
The woke crowd in Spokane has become incensed that the statue’s inscription uses the word “savage” in describing the fierce attack of an opposing military force during a bloody civil war. They claim the inscription is “racist” because it paints the Samoan people as “savages”. Some of the most rabid wokies go so far as to claim Monaghan was a war criminal for even taking part in the conflict, even though he fought alongside a large faction of Samoans and ultimately helped prevent the islanders from being ruled by Germany. The claim that the German backed uprising, which pitted Tongan and Samoan warriors against other indigenous Samoan warriors backed by the United States and involving the U.S. Navy was anything but “savage”, is to misrepresent history and deny a decorated soldier the respect and honor he deserves.
Sources for this article include:
https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2022/may/05/war-hero-or-criminal-monaghan-statue-continues-to-/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_R._Monaghan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samoan_Civil_War
https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2023/jul/06/sue-lani-madsen-this-immigrants-story-has-many-lay/
https://www.change.org/p/spokane-wa-remove-the-statue-of-john-robert-monaghan-from-downtown-spokane
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/OW18990420.2.71
omots page 
“Our Republic, to continue to exist, depends on an informed public willing to maintain it.” [Donald Brockett – Author and Former Spokane City Prosecuting Attorney]
I included the quote above because it is the truth. Today our Republic is facing a greater threat than at any time in our history. Our peril comes not from an outside enemy martialing arms against us, but from the savage foe within. Wokeism, which I define as the dismemberment of historical and scientific facts in favor of a political agenda, will destroy this country more certainly and completely than all the warheads lurking in Russian silos.
It should be noted that after John Monaghan was shot, he was beheaded, as was the custom of Samoans fighting on both sides of the conflict. While some overly sensitive people have voiced offense over the term “savage” to describe the character of enemy combatants as recorded on the monument’s inscription, the word has many contexts besides the limited and specific connotation of disparaging an entire group of people. Synonyms include “brutal, relentless, merciless, or violent”. Words like these are often used to describe particular battles and/or the behavior of combatants during wartime. Anyone who researches the Samoan civil war(s) would understand why such a word was chosen for the Monaghan inscription. Civil wars are indeed “savage” and this particular battle was no exception. The truth of the matter is that the statue honors a local man whose bravery, commitment to duty, and self-sacrifice, should be celebrated, not denigrated. Adding additional historical context to the monument, as Councilman Bingle suggested, is a great idea. Ignorance is truly a savage foe.