If you're a liberal activist, stop whatever it is you're doing. Turn off the Indigo Girls CD and pay attention.

For the past two years, Big Brother has diverted your attention with non-discrimination clauses, styrofoam and advertising rights. But now that the chain link fences are gone and the renovations complete, you can witness the horrific murals of imperialistic oppression adorning the walls of the main building.

That's right, underneath the Golden Dome (which could be melted down and sold to feed the needy), there are several paintings depicting Christopher Columbus among the Native Americans. The paintings fail to depict Columbus in a negative light, and even show him getting along with several of the natives. Perhaps the time has come to direct teach-ins, rallies and Phil Donahue appearances towards the issue.

Many of you did not even realize these paintings existed until now, but they've been around for many years. And when they were painted, attitudes towards Native Americans, as well as other attitudes of Western culture, were much different.

Unfortunately, we live in an age of historical bias, one in which history professors call Abraham Lincoln racist and any talk of western civilization comes loaded with revisionist buzzwords.

Therefore it was only a matter of time before somebody somewhere got offended, and he would of course cry out for justice, and we would have another mini-crisis on hand. But to tell you the truth, I actually admire the artwork. I have a real soft spot for nineteenth century artwork, regardless of its historical validity or lack thereof. I can look past the prejudices of the artist and take into account the mindset of our forebearers without creating a huge issue in the process.

Incidentally, this thick-skinned attitude also allows me to watch spaghetti westerns and old cartoons painlessly. Hopefully, such reasoning will prevail on campus, instead of being mislabeled as apathy by the more "progressive-minded." If this were Stanford, the paintings would have already been replaced by the Indigenous Transgendered Marxist Painting of the Month. Luckily, our administration looks past such nonsense, and carries on despite the protests of most students, including those who believe Notre Dame is a "laughing-stock" among Catholic universities. Folks, Notre Dame is the premier Catholic university. If you want to see a poor excuse for a Catholic university, visit Georgetown.

But I digress. The majority of my ranting is directed towards the general idea that our campus, as well as our society, still holds relics of an impure past that we're all so eager to come to terms with. In order to do so, many find it necessary to rewrite history and discredit the "bad guys" like Columbus. Others try to rid Catholicism of masculine language and replace it with a generic unisex substitute, as if this achieved any substantive objective. And the list goes on, as futile attempts to correct the past render us oversensitive and guilt-ridden.

As for me, I'll take these lessons into account, as any responsible student of history. But I won't burden my conscience with that I cannot change. I'll just get back to watching my historically inaccurate Clint Eastwood westerns in peace.

• I'll watch my westerns in peace