Statue of John Lewis replaces more than 100-year-old Confederate monument
Statue of John Lewis replaces more than 100-year-old Confederate monument
The statue of Lewis will be officially unveiled Aug. 24.
To everyone suggesting the racist’s statue should be kept;
Statutes are a means to honor someone. This racist is a disgrace. And his statute is a reminder that his ideology was once accepted, and admired enough to be honored.
47I'm personally not a fan of any statues. We have a tendency to create hagiographies of people, not realizing until decades later that they are human.
That said, putting up statues of losers of a war just....doesn't fucking make sense. We don't have statues of King George or Osama Bin Laden anywhere. No one is screaming about their heritage.
12Well said.
2
I like the idea of putting them into a museum of their history, so we can appreciate the skill that was needed to make them but we also learn about the stain on humanity that the subjects represent
4Most of them are not good examples of the fine arts. Shit, the average town would just buy one from travelling salesmen who intentionally sold mass produced statues that had easily modified insignia and could be sold on either side of the Mason-Dixon line. The one in this story was just a carved obelisk from the early 20th century, probably from a tombstone yard in northeast Georgia.
If somebody ponied up for Auguste Rodin to do a Confederate statue, then okay fine let's squirrel it away in the corner of a museum somewhere, maybe even from a lesser light like Charles Keck, but other than that you could adequately preserve the artistic and historical value of these things, even the ones of specific enslaving assholes, with a dozen examples in a storage unit somewhere, along with a flash drive holding 3D scans of the rest, and that's presuming you actually got all the southern municipalities to agree to take them down.
15No.
6I agree in the same way there is Nazi paraphernalia/propaganda in museums today. If we don't teach about and denounce traitors we'll be sure to see more. These statues were used a century later to brainwash people into advocating for terrorism.
1
Your last sentence gave me an idea.
Why don't we put the Confederacy statues in something like an "American Slavery Museum"?
Its probably good to remember that these horrific ideas were once admired and honored, lest we become complacent. But putting them in the right context, i.e. next to evidence of the horrors wrought by their ideals, seems like the perfect place for them imho.
Edit: well, not every idea I have is a winner.
1You won’t find statues of Hitler, Goering, or other Nazi figures in the Holocaust Museum. I’m well aware of what they did, and I’m sure many others are as well.
19No, for the same reason Hitlers body isn’t on display for “historic” purposes. Sudate on them, yes. Otherwise they should be erased from discourse as to not become idols much like many confederate leaders are today.
11No. Just…. No.
5also, date each statue was comissioned constructed and finished.
and a reminder of the names of every piece of shit who voted for it. addresses, for the ones who are still alive.
2
Good trouble.
9Ooohhhh way down south in the land of traitors, rattlesnakes and alligators...
5May the spirit of Sherman carry you forever my friend.
3
Can we put Sherman in Atlanta and Savannah with a torch in one hand and his saber in the other?
Just a historical reminder...
2Go full patriot and put a statue of Sherman on top of a Sherman tank lol
2
I hope they're putting the statues they've been removing in storage or something. Imo it's kinda important history (partially due to age,1 partially because their removal is kinda big from a historical perspective) and just destroying them kinda sucks. Put them in a huge warehouse for academics to study or something.
1 (yes Europeans, I know 100yrs isn't much and that your apartment building is probably that old. However, in the US, it's rare for something to last more than 100yrs)
Edit: for clarification, the "historically significant" part is the fight to takedown the statues and the realization of just how many and how common they are. I'm aware they were erected after the civil war.
-6The monument in question was erected in 1908 by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, a group which exists to this day and remains inextricably linked to the Ku Klux Klan. Let those traitors pay to store their garbage if they want to.
Put them in a huge warehouse for academics to study or something.
We don't need to keep these statues to understand their racist purpose, nor to document their removal for the historical record.
23im actually in favor of charging them for this, and using the most overpriced government contractor you can find, with some absurd conditions about how visible they can be from outside (not at all) etc. maybe add an expensive certification. if their heritage is really that expensive, they can pay out the ass for it.
or, gouge them just the same, and give all the money to the SPLC or something.
2I'm aware they aren't Confederate era. I still believe them to be historically significant due to the outrage they've caused. I think it'd still be worth putting them all together in a single warehouse because, at the very least, people would be able to get a true sense of the scope of the problem.
Which would have more impact, a statue or two with a description saying that hundreds of such statues existed, or a balcony overlooking said hundreds of statues?
Personally, I'd find the latter way more impactful. It's hard to imagine just how many statues are in "hundreds of statues" (heck, some people literally can't visualize things in their heads); seeing them altogether would probably be mind boggling.
-4
I used to believe this, then I remembered cameras exist. They can be 3d scanned for the academics or whatever, I think the loosers don't deserve trophies.
12The "Confederate" monument that was removed wasn't a Civil War monument; it was bullshit put up 50 years after-the-fact by "Lost Cause" nutcases. It'd be like if MAGAs put up a statue of George Wallace in 2024 to celebrate this fuckery.
Metro Atlanta does have a few legitimate Civil War monuments that actually deserve preservation, but this was not one of them!
11I know they aren't confederate-era. The thing that I think makes them historically significant is the fact they've caused so much outrage. As such, I think it's important to showcase just how much of a problem they are. It's not like a single statue here or there, there are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of them.
As I asked in another reply, which would be more impactful, seeing a statue or two with a plaque that says something about hundreds of them existing, or a balcony overlooking a warehouse full of them? Personally, I think the latter would have a much stronger impact on me because it would emphasize just how many of them there are/were.
-6