Confederate memorial moved to graveyard

Just south of our Nashville home is the town of Franklin. The population was around 900, when one of the larger Civil War battles was fought there, resulting in around 10,000 casualties. In the Town Center, nearly 1¼ centuries ago erected to memorialize - a statue of an unknown Confederate soldier;



The city is contemplating taking it down. Maybe moving it to a nearby Civil War Cemetery would seem a great idea. After all, you either went to war when you're told, and will likely be killed or maimed for life or you could be shot for refusal, just like desertion. Thinking of Vietnam, not many wanted to go, but there were consequences should you refuse. By the same logic here, do we tear down the Vietnam memorial and statues? Many on the "opposite side", fought for cause believed, & some fought because they were forced to. Statues, like any other art form, evokes different thoughts to individual viewers. Multiple thousand-year-old year old carvings into the side of a mountain were destroyed by the Taliban, as they represented viewpoints different from what their thinking is/was. Watching the destruction on the news, it seemed shocking - unless you get inside the heads of Islamic fundamentalists who take it as an unconscionable effrontery to their beliefs.
or ......
Some think of unconscionable effrontery historic artwork as a reminder of what societies should never do again. In the Middle East, archaeologists dig up huge phallic symbols - worship icons representing the beliefs of the cultures, whereby (even) children could be sacrificed to their Gods (history, my favorite subject). Such types of unconscionable artwork .... modernly may represent reminders of how horribly things go wrong - & so we don't forget, or .... modern cultures will destroy them because it represents something horrible.
Viewpoint expression vs. Suppression.
Nothing new under the Sun.

 

No problem with memorials to the dead, but many of the confederate statues weren't erected for that, and were done decades after the war.

 

The above mentioned monuments are very prominently displayed on central government property. Town squares or county courthouses.

In sharp contrast, the Statue of Lenin in Seattle is privately owned, on private property, in a quirky Fremont neighborhood a few blocks from several other quirky pieces of art. And has been offered for sale for decades, by the heirs of the importer, who had plans to use it in front of a Slovakian ethnic restaurant in a nearby town.

Moving statues from highly prominent public display in town squares or in front of major government buildings, to more modest displays in graveyards or museums or on private property, is vastly different than destroying antiquities such as the Bamyan carvings.

 

And there you have it: a disgusting attempt to try to link BLM to he Taliban and Vietnam vets to Confederate traitors.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

The only thing that I find disgusting is the lack of tolerance for polite discourse.

I've seen the monument in question many times and I offer no opinion for its disposition.
BUT....
I presume the good people in that city will either move it, or it will be destroyed.
As always, either action will reflect on the parties involved.

Speaking of 'tolerance'....this thread is almost certainly headed into that which lies beyond the boundaries of this forum, so I think that's where I will leave things for now.

 

sorry - but it appears that even benign comments to benign comments can raise the hysteria flag to new heights. So much for discourse and tolerance and hearing the other side ... much less ANY viewpoint that differs. Don't express your opinion or you will be stomped out. Again, nothing new Under the Sun.

Anyway, back to Bob's post 1 - a couple years ago we did the tourist thing in Georgia. They have fully restored iirc the only remaining slave auction house. People of all colors were there ... and yet no one was freaking out in disgust, how such a place couldn't have been torched already. But who knows nowadays. Can't recall who it was that first said (something similar to) those who fail to embrace history are doomed to repeat it.
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I was able to tour that Park a year ago this month, and heartily second Bob's recommendation.

While in the region, don't miss the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum in Jackson.
Mississippi Civil Rights Museum