Mayor de Blazio of NY has ordered that the statue of Teddy Roosevelt to be removed from the Museum of Natural History. The accusation is that TR was a colonialist, as if that makes him bad. Roosevelt was an imperialist, who wanted to and worked to make America first among the nations of the world, especially by building up her naval power.Today, colonization is considered bad by people ignorant of history. America went through her own colonial period from the founding of the first permanent settlement in Jamestown in 1607 until our Declaration of Independence in 1776. This was a necessary and productive phase for our country. Without the British and Americans fighting together in the French and Indian War, we might have ended up French instead of English.Like America, Africa’s colonization by European powers was good for “the Dark Continent,” mainly by introducing Christian Civilization to a landmass dominated by animism, which discourages development, progress and industrialization. You know, we can’t offend the ancestors by improving our condition and environment. In the providence of God, the first African slaves were brought to Virginia in 1619. Initially, they were usually regarded as indentured servants, who could earn their freedom, which is also the means by which most Europeans were able to come to the New World.Unfortunately, by the 1660’s, Africans were transported to America in shackles for a lifetime of involuntary servitude. Still, they had the good fortune of being introduced to Christianity long before blacks, who were stuck in Africa heard the Christian message from the likes of David Livingston in the 19th Century. Today, the black churches are the strongest institution in their communities.No president has ever embodied the American spirit more than TR. He was an adventurer, explorer, cowboy, “rough rider” and our most literate president; he was strenuous, exuberant and epitomized manliness, even fighting boxing matches in the WH. TR said, “I don’t envy the man who lives the life of ease.” On the other hand, Mayor de Blasio is just the opposite and represents, more than any prominent politician, everything that the American spirit stands against.