Statue Removal Megathread: Is History In Danger or What?

[Farnhamia]

I found this story a bit troubling.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/browa ... story.html
Napoleon Bonaparte Broward was governor of Florida from 1905 to 1908 and was a unapologetic racist and also pushed for the draining of the Everglades. Broward County in Florida is named for him and there is a statue of him in the county courthouse bearing his name.

I do not disagree that statues of Confederate generals should be removed and placed in museums. Many of them were put up during the era of Jim Crow as a form of intimidation. Some were even donated by KKK members. Furthermore Traitors should not be honored in public squares. This however is going to far in my view. The man was governor of the state not a Confederate general. I wonder if some will decide later the county should be renamed. I think some people are taking the statue controversy way to far and it almost seems like they are trying to act as if certain parts of history never happened.

What's your take on this NSG? Is the statue controversy going to far?

I'm sure I don't need to introduce the topic of statues being torn down. We've all heard the news and the sudden rapid increase in America toward removing statues of controversial figures. These have included Confederate Statues, Columbus statues, and statues of famous albeit racist politicians. Some people want these to stay, others moved to museums, others want to reenact tearing down the nazi statues in Berlin.

Of course, we seem to get a thread every week about this, so why not broach the subject directly. How do you feel about controversial statues? Should we keep them, as a reminder of our dark past? Should we put them in a museum or park, someplace people can specifically go to learn about these subjects? Or should we start working on a dump for broken statue parts?
Personally, I've never been a fan of most of the statues and monuments celebrating people, I prefer things that don't feel as worshippy, like learning about this person, rather then seeing giant stone versions of them everywhere, but that's just me

I've taken the liberty of making this a megathread on the removal of statues in general.

[The Parkus Empire]

As long as Jackson is on the twenty, this is all pretty meaningless.

[San Lumen]

As long as Jackson is on the twenty, this is all pretty meaningless.

Why is it meaningless?

[Valgora]

As long as Jackson is on the twenty, this is all pretty meaningless.

Thinking about it... yea. I feel inclined to agree.
Fuck Jackson.

[Alanis Star]

Man, we are really on a statue removal streak. If it is going to a museum though, I guess it's fine with me. I mean, at least it's not going to be vandalised or destroyed.

Just preserving a part of history, no?

[San Lumen]

Man, we are really on a statue removal streak. If it is going to a museum though, I guess it's fine with me. I mean, at least it's not going to be vandalised or destroyed.

I don't think it should be removed in the first place. A confederate general is one thing a Governor is another.

[SD_Film Artists]

Man, we are really on a statue removal streak. If it is going to a museum though, I guess it's fine with me. I mean, at least it's not going to be vandalised or destroyed.

Just preserving a part of history, no?

^This. There's a small but important difference between the non-celebration of history and the re-writing of history. Unfortunately too many people these days are happy to re-write history if it doesn't suit their modern sensibilities.

[The Widening Gyre]

I think some people are taking the statue controversy way to far and it almost seems like they are trying to act as if certain parts of history never happened.

... How? Like, it's not as though people are advocating that his memory be damned or something, it's just that maybe terrible people shouldn't have statues put up and maintained on the public's expense.

[Valgora]

As long as Jackson is on the twenty, this is all pretty meaningless.

Why is it meaningless?

Why should we worry about a statue of a governor (or Florida of all places) when Jackson is still on the twenty.
Jackson was a terrible person.

[Thermodolia]

Ya this is going to far.

[Thermodolia]

Why is it meaningless?

Why should we worry about a statue of a governor (or Florida of all places) when Jackson is still on the twenty.
Jackson was a terrible person.

Jackson isn't going to be on there for much longer, you know. Harriet Tubman is replacing him.

[Telconi]

I found this story a bit troubling.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/browa ... story.html
Napoleon Bonaparte Broward was governor of Florida from 1905 to 1908 and was a unapologetic racist and also pushed for the draining of the Everglades. Broward County in Florida is named for him and there is a statue of him in the county courthouse bearing his name.

I do not disagree that statues of Confederate generals should be removed and placed in museums. Many of them were put up during the era of Jim Crow as a form of intimidation. Some were even donated by KKK members. Furthermore Traitors should not be honored in public squares. This however is going to far in my view. The man was governor of the state not a Confederate general. I wonder if some will decide later the county should be renamed. I think some people are taking the statue controversy way to far and it almost seems like they are trying to act as if certain parts of history never happened.

What's your take on this NSG? Is the statue controversy going to far?

-shrug- Statues of racists get wrekt. I don't see why his being a Confederate officer is relevant. He was a racist.

So long as they aren't trying to sanitize history, I see no reason not to take it down.

[Telconi]

Why should we worry about a statue of a governor (or Florida of all places) when Jackson is still on the twenty.
Jackson was a terrible person.

Jackson isn't going to be on there for much longer, you know. Harriet Tubman is replacing him.

I'd rather someone besides Tubman, but most people would be better than Jackson.

[Thermodolia]

I found this story a bit troubling.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/browa ... story.html
Napoleon Bonaparte Broward was governor of Florida from 1905 to 1908 and was a unapologetic racist and also pushed for the draining of the Everglades. Broward County in Florida is named for him and there is a statue of him in the county courthouse bearing his name.

I do not disagree that statues of Confederate generals should be removed and placed in museums. Many of them were put up during the era of Jim Crow as a form of intimidation. Some were even donated by KKK members. Furthermore Traitors should not be honored in public squares. This however is going to far in my view. The man was governor of the state not a Confederate general. I wonder if some will decide later the county should be renamed. I think some people are taking the statue controversy way to far and it almost seems like they are trying to act as if certain parts of history never happened.

What's your take on this NSG? Is the statue controversy going to far?

-shrug- Statues of racists get wrekt. I don't see why his being a Confederate officer is relevant. He was a racist.

So long as they aren't trying to sanitize history, I see no reason not to take it down.

Someone being a racist asshole isn't enough of a reason to take down a statue. If that's the case then all statues of Washington, and Thomas Jefferson should come down.

[Thermodolia]

Jackson isn't going to be on there for much longer, you know. Harriet Tubman is replacing him.

I'd rather someone besides Tubman, but most people would be better than Jackson.

There was a vote on it and she won. I wanted Rosa Parks but at least Tubman beat out Margaret Sanger

[San Lumen]

I found this story a bit troubling.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/browa ... story.html
Napoleon Bonaparte Broward was governor of Florida from 1905 to 1908 and was a unapologetic racist and also pushed for the draining of the Everglades. Broward County in Florida is named for him and there is a statue of him in the county courthouse bearing his name.

I do not disagree that statues of Confederate generals should be removed and placed in museums. Many of them were put up during the era of Jim Crow as a form of intimidation. Some were even donated by KKK members. Furthermore Traitors should not be honored in public squares. This however is going to far in my view. The man was governor of the state not a Confederate general. I wonder if some will decide later the county should be renamed. I think some people are taking the statue controversy way to far and it almost seems like they are trying to act as if certain parts of history never happened.

What's your take on this NSG? Is the statue controversy going to far?

-shrug- Statues of racists get wrekt. I don't see why his being a Confederate officer is relevant. He was a racist.

So long as they aren't trying to sanitize history, I see no reason not to take it down.

By todays standard;s many people are racist does that mean we should take town every statue for the sake of political correctness because it might offend someone? Where does it end? I thought Confederate Generals was enough this is going to far.

[Trumptonium]

Not long left until we start removing statues of Roosevelt because he was a racist.

Then again watching lefties cry their heart out at the oppressive presence of a sculptured rock is quite funny so I hope we do it slowly.

[Telconi]

-shrug- Statues of racists get wrekt. I don't see why his being a Confederate officer is relevant. He was a racist.

So long as they aren't trying to sanitize history, I see no reason not to take it down.

By todays standard;s many people are racist does that mean we should take town every statue for the sake of political correctness because it might offend someone? Where does it end? I thought Confederate Generals was enough this is going to far.

If a town elects to remove a statue from a park of theirs, they do so. That simple.

[Telconi]

I'd rather someone besides Tubman, but most people would be better than Jackson.

There was a vote on it and she won. I wanted Rosa Parks but at least Tubman beat out Margaret Sanger

I would have kept Jackson rather than have Sanger on there.

I'd say MLK would have been the best.

[Thermodolia]

There was a vote on it and she won. I wanted Rosa Parks but at least Tubman beat out Margaret Sanger

I would have kept Jackson rather than have Sanger on there.

I'd say MLK would have been the best.

MLK and Rosa Parks would have been good. Maybe we don't need to just have one person.

[Cruxa]

Honestly?

This one's-- well, not justified entirely, but it's okay. They aren't scrubbing textbooks clean of him. This isn't a rinsing of Florida history. It's just a removal of a statue of a bad guy. And that's... okay. At least it's going to a museum. That actually makes it a lot better than attempts to destroy statues, imho.

[Internationalist Bastard]

Time for more abstract statues maybe?

[Internationalist Bastard]

Honestly?

This one's-- well, not justified entirely, but it's okay. They aren't scrubbing textbooks clean of him. This isn't a rinsing of Florida history. It's just a removal of a statue of a bad guy. And that's... okay. At least it's going to a museum. That actually makes it a lot better than attempts to destroy statues, imho.

TBF, that's what they were gonna do with the Confederate stautes, then it got all out of hand.

[Thermodolia]

Time for more abstract statues maybe?

Someone would pitch a fit about how it's a waste of money and isn't art.

[Cruxa]

Honestly?

This one's-- well, not justified entirely, but it's okay. They aren't scrubbing textbooks clean of him. This isn't a rinsing of Florida history. It's just a removal of a statue of a bad guy. And that's... okay. At least it's going to a museum. That actually makes it a lot better than attempts to destroy statues, imho.

TBF, that's what they were gonna do with the Confederate stautes, then it got all out of hand.

Then I've got no issue with those either. I'm just not in favor of altering history, is all. Otherwise, I completely agree with the sentiments of taking statues down.