General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhat should happen to Confederate Statues?
45 votes, 0 passes | Time left: Unlimited | |
Take them down and destroy them | |
18 (40%) |
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Leave them in place | |
1 (2%) |
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Move them to a history museum | |
24 (53%) |
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Let the people vandalize them | |
1 (2%) |
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OTHER | |
1 (2%) |
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0 DU members did not wish to select any of the options provided. | |
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JustFiveMoreMinutes
(2,133 posts)... since they'll never change the carving on the Mountain Face...
Might as well as make it a Confederate Museum.
Might want to move the Ark there as well.
Hoyt
(54,770 posts)John Lewis, MLK, and all the Civil Rights icons from Georgia.
But, until then, I guess the park is as good a place as any. The damn place was owned by an honest to dog KKK Grand Wizzard -- or whatever they call themselves -- before selling it to the state.
I have never understood why anyone goes to that park -- well, anyone other than ignorant white wingers. It's a blight.
maxsolomon
(35,452 posts)It will require dynamite and chisels and millions of dollars.
Hoyt
(54,770 posts)State of GA needs to be in, too.
Hoyt
(54,770 posts)hlthe2b
(107,169 posts)they should face similar statutes of union counterparts.
milestogo
(18,519 posts)That said, these statues don't have to be in everyone's face every day.
Caliman73
(11,767 posts)Most of those statues were put up in the 1920's during the time when Jim Crow was in full swing, and it was done with the intent to keep Southern Black people "in their place" by showing them that White Confederate sympathizers were in power.
Most of the historical statues were placed about a decade after the war, in placed designated as battlegrounds.
We need to be careful which history we are preserving.
If those statues are put on display with full context, then okay, but I think those statues were actually meant to distort history.
Lochloosa
(16,462 posts)All history is not always pretty, but it is history and everyone can learn from it.
Caliman73
(11,767 posts)Because they distorted history?
I think you need to go back and rethink your answer.
Taliban destroyed those statues and many others because they wanted to destroy the history of other cultures in their desire to establish a caliphate as per their sect of Islam.
The monuments put up by DoC and other racist groups have little actual cultural or historical value, except to point out America's continued struggle with White Supremacy and Racism.
Again, if they were to be displayed in such a context in a museum about race and American racism, then fine. They have no historical or cultural value outside of that context.
Lochloosa
(16,462 posts)but the history of the 20's, 30's etc.
I would classify them more a part of our Civil Rights history also and should be part of that.
Caliman73
(11,767 posts)They should be labeled as such.
Not general civil rights or any other less up front category. "The history of Racism in America".
Solomon
(12,496 posts)They should be torn down and cast away.
Alacritous Crier
(4,187 posts)most were placed by the Daughters of the Confederacy during the spread of the "Lost Cause" lie.
Blue_true
(31,261 posts)confederate figures should be preserved in a museum, but taken from public parks and squares.
Statues that were erected out of racist sentiment long after the way should be taken down and either destroyed or sold. If people want to put them up on private property, so be it, as long as they can't be viewed from a public facility or roadway.
Voltaire2
(14,999 posts)most were put up in modern times, like the 60s.
Atticus
(15,124 posts)Aristus
(68,769 posts)ace3csusm
(969 posts)WhiskeyGrinder
(24,185 posts)Confederate statues are not history, and removing them does not erase history.
ProfessorGAC
(70,989 posts)The historical facts are well documented.
Statues of traitorous failures add nothing to the historical record.
yonder
(10,015 posts)If discovered in the future, let someone else try to make sense of it.
demmiblue
(37,892 posts)It provides a good opportunity to spark discussions about our past, our present and our future.
madville
(7,496 posts)Against destroying them, preserve them for history.
Laelth
(32,017 posts)I value historythe good, the bad, and the ugly.
But my ultimate answer is this. The fate of Confederate statues must be decided by the citizens of the cities and states in which they are located. I dont think that I have the right to tell these cities and states what to do with their own public property.
-Laelth
ProfessorGAC
(70,989 posts)Statues of treasonous losers add what to the established history?
Laelth
(32,017 posts)Such reminders are useful. I think a reminder that racism is STILL REAL can be productive. Its better than HIDING a racist past and sweeping it under the rug, but, ultimately, I think its up to the citizens of the cities and states in which such monuments reside.
-Laelth
LeftInTX
(31,180 posts)I think they have their own cemetery, but it was such as heated issue at the time, the destination location was kept secret.
Most states in the south have confederate cemeteries.
Many of these statue are owned by the Daughters of Confederate States and Sons of Confederate Veterans. Get the statues off public property and back into private hands where they belong.
PaulRevere08
(453 posts)Oh, right, we opted not to build statues to traitors.
Caliman73
(11,767 posts)A boot, I believe dedicated to the actions before the treason.
Arnold was a good field commander who helped win some important battles for the Americans. He felt that he was overlooked for command and thus decided to turn coat.
Nothing glorifying him though and he is only thought of as a traitor now, as should the confederates.
mtngirl47
(1,109 posts)That way they can all go see their religious stuff and confederate stuff in one place
Maru Kitteh
(29,306 posts)hunter
(39,114 posts)Finish the damned Civil War.
Hong Kong Cavalier
(4,588 posts)But in the Season 9 episode of M*A*S*H called "Depressing News" Hawkeye builds a 'monument' out of an excess of tongue depressors the camp receives.
And then when the Stars and Stripes comes to do an article and take a picture of it for morale, he uses a roll of Primacord that a departing wounded soldier gives him to blow it up.
Wrap 'em all in Primacord and light the fuse (from a safe distance, of course.)
We could sell pay-per-view tickets for it, even. Move 'em all to an abandoned quarry and blow 'em up.
Archetypist
(218 posts)Then make a museum showing video clips of that. I would settle for a museum that houses the statues in interpretive exhibits. I just feel they need to cease to exist as physical objects. The same way the swastika was taken down all over Germany.
tenderfoot
(8,918 posts)eom
DBoon
(23,249 posts)most of them are in place to intimidate African Americans. The statues don't actually commemorate a past event - they are meant to put people in their place.
They serve no civilized purpose.
SWBTATTReg
(24,494 posts)public dollars back (if government owned) and use the proceeds solely for good, scholarships to kids, etc., but if privately owned, then the statues need to be removed from public grounds/public display by the owners (Daughters of the Confederacy, whomever, to do as they chose, kind of like what happened earlier when a wave of these statues were removed recently (last five years or so).
Like the nazi memorabilia, a lot was destroyed, some went into museums so future generations can understand for themselves the disgusting attributes of the Nazi regime. There's always going to be a market for such items unfortunately. At least get some money out of it.
This is a hard question to answer, such as the one question that has been asked in the past, what to do w/ all of the Nazi medical research that went on in prison / labor camps? Most, if not all of the answers I have seen on this (medical research derived from such sources) is to destroy that work, which I agree w/.
Things have a habit of being rediscovered again and again if they are worth it, thus any so called 'medical' advances made by the Nazi medical research will be discovered again. I say this because a lot of discoveries made of various things seem to come in groups, e.g., multiple groups at the same time discovered things etc., so I don't worry anymore that such gee whiz advances are super critical, they're not.
Destroying the statues seem to rank censorship in a fashion, and I don't condone censorship, but at least get some good out of these items, but don't display in a public place, there are other far more valuable things or far more better people to display than these hateful items.
However, if voices cry out for these hateful items to be destroyed, I won't stop them. I want my friends to be satisfied and happy w/ how these hateful symbols of our country's past are handled, and if being destroyed is what they want, then be it.
struggle4progress
(120,648 posts)BlueJac
(7,838 posts)fishwax
(29,328 posts)with pictures and context of their racist origins and slavery-defending inspirations, so that this dark history isn't lost.
RichardRay
(2,613 posts)To each one, add a large, clear sign describing who the person was, and including information on how the statue got there. At the bottom put an apology.
MoonlitKnight
(1,585 posts)Do we have a Benedict Arnold museum?
If anything it would be like WW2 museums that show the criminality of traitors. Like Holocaust museums and the ones in Europe like in Warsaw that show the Nazi and Soviet atrocities so we never forget. And they dont have statues.
JustGene
(421 posts)and use them for statues/memorials of murdered Black folks/slaves
leftyladyfrommo
(19,468 posts)These were not people to be glorified but it's dangerous to rewrite history. We need to remember the mistakes of the past. Erasing them leaves us vulnerable to making them all over again.
MoonlitKnight
(1,585 posts)To remember how evil he was.
Baclava
(12,047 posts)... of who won the war, they should never forget to never repeat it
SoonerPride
(12,286 posts)No trophies for racists and traitors.
No putting that shit in museums either.
Melt them down.
onethatcares
(16,613 posts)n/t
ibegurpard
(16,889 posts)And should be removed.
I'm not comfortable with their destruction however. In a museum with context explaining their notoriety perhaps?