What persons statues should we replace with...
- Thread starter PhilFish
- Start date
ObamacareForever
Senator
Steve Bannon
RickWA
The Pissant Snagglesooth
Gumby and Pokey. Two innocuous, vapid blokes. They signify nothing and can be bent and re-shaped to the fickle, cockeyed whims of the rogue hordes.
...Plus, one is green and the other is sort of a brownish orange. Celebrate diversity.
Arkady
President
You can probably find a few people, in this country, who'd oppose just about any statue you put up. That's diversity of thought for you. But, a good thing to ask, when deciding whether a statue is appropriate or not, is "What, exactly, is this statue meant to accomplish?"
In the case of the confederate statues, that's clear. Many of those were erected in the period between 1890 and 1930, when white supremacy was under attack and there was a huge backlash against that progress -- with KKK membership peaking in the 1920s. What those statues were meant to do was to stand as a symbol of white supremacy, by honoring people's willingness to kill their fellow Americans in support of slavery. They were meant to be a symbol of white power. As any decent person will tell you, that's an atrocious use of a public space. And so decent people don't want those statues left standing in those spaces.
There are statues where things aren't that clear-cut. For example, there are statues of deeply divisive figures like Wernher Von Braun -- a man who was an SS officer and father of rocket-attack terrorism in WWII, but who was also a genius who worked tirelessly for the American space program and ended up playing a pivotal role in one of mankind's greatest scientific accomplishments. Asking "what, exactly, is this statue meant to accomplish" leads us to a non-offensive answer, in that case. It's meant to honor and memorialize the work of a leading figure in space exploration. If, instead, the same man were memorialized with a statue of him as a young man in a Nazi uniform, the answer to that question would be different. And so we'd come to a different conclusion about whether it's appropriate. So, as you can see, it's not just a question of who we should honor, but also how.
Context also matters. Even for someone being honored for an appropriate reason, the context might be bad. For example, picture a statue of Von Braun in a neighborhood in London where people still lived whose parents and grandparents had been killed by the man's efforts? Even if the statue were focused on his space-exploration efforts, not his Nazi era, I would fully understand if the community didn't want that statue there. Similarly, if representatives of a Jewish community objected to having it in a predominantly Jewish neighborhood, I would advocate moving it somewhere less tendentious. But a statue to him in, say, Cape Canaveral or Houston, focused on his work for NASA, would be just fine.
BobbyT
Governor
Perhaps it needn't be a "whom" but a "what." We could put up statues honoring other great and useful inhabitants of our planet. Whales in Alaska, bees and butterflies in bread basket states, coyotes in NM, armadillos in Texas, alligators in Florida, bears in California, buffalo in SD, beavers in NY, etc.
Arkady
President
The nice thing is that white flags could serve as a memorial both to the confederate traitors, and to their ideological kindred, the Nazis. Both got their asses royally kicked by morally superior forces, and memorializing them with their flag of surrender would provide an occasion for teaching the history without appearing to honor them for their evil acts.
Spamature
President
Honestly, instead of glorifying the war that killed so many Americans, honor the peace that came with the end of the war.
Peace Monuments sounds fine to me and it does send the right message.
How about this one. I added the "panties" as didn't want to embarrass the Potus. He has enough problem admitting his hands are tiny.
It was also a period when the old veterans were dying off and the statues were mostly put up by the widows,wives and daughters of the veterans. It was also during a period when military pensions were approved for Confederate veterans and started being paid. Yep...context matters...all of it.
Poseidon Atlantis
Mayor
I visited Dublin and loved some of the statues there , ones of the guitarist with Thin Lizzy , another of a woman pushing a barrow laden with cockles and muscles ( you know the song 
) most moving was the customs Quay , a line of life sized families in a line waiting to emigrate .
I also went to the Isle of Man and there was a bench with a local celebrity , from the 1930s commemorated seated at one end and leaning against a lamppost was Charles Fornby playing a Uke.
I would love to see local characters so honoured - not political people generals or local worthies - people like that fishmonger who was there for decades and swore at you while giving you exactly the cut that you needed.
) most moving was the customs Quay , a line of life sized families in a line waiting to emigrate .I also went to the Isle of Man and there was a bench with a local celebrity , from the 1930s commemorated seated at one end and leaning against a lamppost was Charles Fornby playing a Uke.
I would love to see local characters so honoured - not political people generals or local worthies - people like that fishmonger who was there for decades and swore at you while giving you exactly the cut that you needed.
D
Deleted member 21794
Guest
I visited Dublin and loved some of the statues there , ones of the guitarist with Thin Lizzy , another of a woman pushing a barrow laden with cockles and muscles ( you know the song
I also went to the Isle of Man and there was a bench with a local celebrity , from the 1930s commemorated seated at one end and leaning against a lamppost was Charles Fornby playing a Uke.
I would love to see local characters so honoured - not political people generals or local worthies - people like that fishmonger who was there for decades and swore at you while giving you exactly the cut that you needed.
I didn't know Phil Linnott was Irish. All this time I though he was British.
Poseidon Atlantis
Mayor
Yup Irish !
Statues of horses, dogs, other animals and marine life and things are okay. Only animals. No spiders or roaches. And please, no snakes. Nice dragons (like Puff) are okay. Not mean ones. Beer mug statues are okay.
Take down all statues with people in them.
I am offended by horse statues if water is coming out of the horse's nose. Those must be taken down immediately.
Nope. Gumby and Pokey must GO. I say replace them with a large beer mug:
That would satisfy everyone.
Queen Titania
Senator
Poseidon Atlantis
Mayor
and the boy in Brussles https://i.ytimg.com/vi/GE26BrP3uSU/maxresdefault.jpg
That's just the rule for this country because of all our crybabies. Italy can make its own choices. I vote to keep the statue of David even though he has a smallish package.
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