Statues & remembering the past

Blacksword wrote: All around the world, statues of divisive historical figures are being taken down, either by force or through locally made democratic decisions. Should all future statues and monuments, erected to commemorate characters from the past, be restricted to sports legends and artists (including musicians) and exclude anyone known for their political, military or religious work and influence? Bearing in mind that one persons hero, is another's villain.

that racism existed on both sides, which is no surprise as we have discussed at some length in the other thread as being racist is as much part and parcel of the species as our propensitiy for both creating great works of art.. and inflicting great horror and destruction upon each other...

Edited by micky - June 13 2020 at 06:34

of course it was John.  What was discussed was not ending slavery.. freeing the slaves.. but constricting it to death over decades as witnessed the pre 1860 guerrilla war in the expanding territory of the country to the west of the fab 13. The conflict not being ending slavery.. but whether it be allowed to expand westward as the country grew.

Re Micky: Well we are talking about two different things again. You are talking about the decisions of government leaders and I am talking about the fears and mindset of the general population.

My grandparents lived in Helena Arkansas, this is far different from the more cosmopolitan and modern urban south i grew up in. In Helena, the civil war was still fresh when I was young, old people would still talk about 'yankees' as if reconstruction was still happening. White people there have the money and the power, but not always the numbers. Different from the rest of the US, black people are a very large population in the deep south. Fear of a black insurrection was something that was very real to white paranoia in the 20th century, and I am sure it was far worse before the civil war.
No official declaration of war was needed from anybody. The fear was there from the get go.

Edited by Easy Money - June 13 2020 at 08:11

There is often a disconnect as to why a country has declared war and why the common people think they want to fight a war. This is true in any war.

agreed... which is why I suppose this whole tangent spouted out of Greg's post.  We know what the purpose of those statues were in post war reknitting of America.. and that is why they have to go...but I do not agree with the ascribing the sins of those that followed to those who served.  

Life’s too short to get mad about some statues getting torn down. Let’s put it simple, hate people because they are dicks, not because of what they look like or how they identify. The fact of the matter is many of these confederate statues were put up during the civil rights movement as a way to sort of spite African Americans and in general, we’ve reached a point where a majority of people don’t want to rally around the leaders of a war fought over slavery and that’s fine by me. At the end of the day, wether or not a statue is there it really should have no bearing on your life.

Edited by dougmcauliffe - June 13 2020 at 09:28

Edited by Sean Trane - June 14 2020 at 02:56