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Rejecting words and actions which perpetrate, support or encourage white supremacists

One story is that it is going into a warehouse. Perhaps they can find a resting place for it along side the Ark from Indiana Jones.
 
I lived 1/4 mile or so from the Lee statute in Richmond 20 years or so ago. Really cool part of of town - old row houses with some really good restaurants and bars mixed in. And the history of Monument Ave with the old brick street (though it could be slick in the rain), the mansions, and the big statutes with guys on horses was pretty unique. Honestly, I never really thought much about what the statutes represented back then - they were just big ass statutes of generals on horses. They didn't get me excited - they didn't bum me out - they were just there. I get now that the symbolism and presence of those generals is not cool - especially to a respectable percentage of the population of the city. But it will really be weird to drive by that area again one day and not see big ass statutes in the circle. Too bad they weren't statutes of Washington and Jefferson.
 
Statues of slaveowners instead of generals fighting for slavery would have been a small upgrade.

There are plenty of people worthy of statues who don’t have that stain.
 
Well, there is an Arthur Ashe statue on a less traveled part of Monumnet Ave (or at least less visiable part) - though it is kind of a weird statue. It is Ashe standing with a tennis racket in one arm and books in the other, and then the top third or so of several kids reaching up to him. It looks like the kids are coming out of the ground.

I'm not a city planner or architect, but if the Lee and Jackson statutes come down, I would not replace them. Just leave that as a grassed round-about or some sort of mini park.
 
The Arthur Ashe statue was very controversial. You’ll never guess why.
 
Lots of stories floating around that VA Gov. Northam is going to announce that the famous Robert E. Lee statue on Richmond's Monument Avenue will be removed from its pedestal and placed into storage. That's big news. The statue is arguably the most famous one of Robert E. Lee in the country, and is a cornerstone of Richmond's most famous street. It was erected in 1890, and was followed by other Confederate statues on the street honoring Stonewall Jackson, Jeb Stuart, and Jefferson Davis (according to Richmond's Mayor, there are plans to remove those statues as well.) It will be interesting to see if there are any protests, and what the state and national reaction will be. I visited Richmond in the 90s to tour the city's historic sites, and traveled down Monument Avenue. If you had told me then that the Lee statue would ever be removed I wouldn't have believed it, symbol of an ugly past though it surely is. I guess elections and protests do matter.

Link: https://apnews.com/75e6f0d57a896207551c1c0e8868cb27

“But, but, but...blackface!” -Angus, almost certainly.
 
The Arthur Ashe statue was very controversial. You’ll never guess why.

Kind of looks like he's about to hit the kids with a tennis racket, but I guess that's not what you are referring to

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“But, but, but...blackface!” -Angus, almost certainly.

It's almost as if if you did something bad in your past and you don't keep doing it, people will eventually forgive you.
 
Some extra Stone Cold.

101701348_10207510148989272_4779070566605196551_o.jpg
 
Those pictures do look uncannily similar to the statues of Lenin, Stalin, etc. that came down in Russia and Eastern Europe when Communism finally fell there in the late 80s and early 90s.
 

“A New Day is coming not only for the Commonwealth, but for the United States and for the world,” Robert W. Lee IV, the fourth great-nephew of Confederate general Robert E. Lee said during a news conference about the removal. “To those of you who might be hedging your bets that this is not the time to do this, when will be the right time. When will it be right to address the white supremacy and racism that we have made an idol of my uncle out of?”
 
Came here to post this essay about letting the monuments rot in a field somewhere, but a lot of y'all were way ahead of me. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/06/let-confederate-monuments-go-seed/612817/
I like this notion in particular:
So too with the statues of Lee. Leave them in an open-air park, to whose upkeep Virginia can devote, say, the salary of a part-time groundskeeper and mowing equipment that only sometimes works. The mountains and hills of Virginia are beautiful places, perfect for a ghostly meadow littered with decrepit, moss-covered statuary planted in the earth at a slovenly tilt. I would not mind if neo-Confederates were permitted to visit the statues and venerate them, as long as other people could visit them and do whatever they pleased to them as well. Germany outlaws Nazi gatherings, but it seems more American to allow any and all assemblies, including pathetic jamborees of neo-Confederates, in suitably demeaning surroundings.
 

It is rather amazing that it's taken this long for these kinds of orders to be given, since the US Navy, Marines, Army, etc. fought a very long and bloody war with military forces flying that flag 155 to 160 years ago, and hundreds of thousands of US military personnel died at their hands. That they were rebels trying to break up the United States goes without saying. Yet only now are the Confederate flag and other Confederate symbols finally being banished in the US armed forces. They should never have been allowed in the first place.
 
Confederate flags, etc., should be banned from any part of military installations, including barracks and all other places.
 
Asheville City Council unanimously approved removal of 2 Confederate monuments, including the big ol Vance Monument obelisk downtown
 
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