Posted on 05/25/2021 10:12:24 AM PDT by Kaslin
Ever since the craze of trying to erase the nation’s history by tearing down monuments that some people find offensive got started, there have been repeated demands to “do something” about Stone Mountain Confederate monument in Georgia. Unlike some of the typical statues that cities erect that can be dragged down during a riot with some ropes and chains, however, this one isn’t so easy for protesters to tackle. For one thing, it’s gigantic. It takes up three acres of space and it’s literally carved into the side of a mountain, as the name suggests. It depicts Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson riding on horseback. To get rid of it would require a significant amount of dynamite and a skilled demolition crew. Also, it’s one of Georgia’s biggest and most frequently visited tourist destinations.
In response to the calls for changes by BLM advocates and others, some alterations are indeed coming. But the mural is not going to be destroyed or changed. Instead, a new exhibit will be added to the park, seeking to tell the whole, complicated story of the region’s past, including the involvement of the Klu Klux Klan. Is this going to appease everyone? Obviously not, but at least they’re making an effort. (CNN)
A new exhibit that seeks to explain “the whole story” of the nation’s largest Confederate monument, including the history of the Ku Klux Klan there, is coming to Georgia’s Stone Mountain Park, the park’s board said Monday.The exhibit will be developed together with “credible and well-established historians,” the board said in a news release, “to tell the warts and all history of the Stone Mountain carving,” including the 1915 rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan on the mountain “and the 50-years of Klan rallies which followed,” until the state bought the mountain and land around it in 1958…
The monument has long been a flashpoint of debate between those who see it as part of the South’s heritage and those for whom it represents White supremacy. It cannot be removed under Georgia law.
Last summer, Stone Mountain was the site of simultaneous protests and counterprotests with armed participants keeping the authorities on edge. (You can watch a video report of that conflict here.) Thankfully, things didn’t get too out of hand.
As far as this new exhibit they’re planning goes, I don’t have any problem with it. The country’s history is complicated and people should have the opportunity to be educated about it, including both the good and the bad. Or, as the planning board put it, “the warts and all history of the Stone Mountain carving.” If the solution is to expand one of their parks and provide even more historical information, that’s a great approach.
It’s certainly far better than allowing mobs to descend on public property and destroy existing displays. I have to wonder how much more rational this debate could have been if people could have negotiated to have other statues and monuments expanded with additional features to add historical context rather than just smashing them to pieces in the dead of night. There’s never been any point to these attacks from the beginning. No amount of destroyed statuary will erase the past and make it so the antebellum south never existed.
Just for a bit of background, the Stone Mountain memorial is recognized as the largest bas-relief artwork in the world. It’s actually larger than Mount Rushmore, though perhaps not as famous. The park officially opened in 1965, but planning for the monument is believed to have begun as early as 1869. As a darker part of its history, the monument was considered to be “holy ground” for the Klu Klux Klan according to many historians.
During the French Revolution there was a saying: “Madame Guillotine must be fed.” Meaning, of course, that once the usual suspects were guillotined the radicals went out searching for even more “enemies”.
I suppose we’ll see the same thing here. Once they have erased Jeff Davis, Robert E. Lee, etc. they’ll go searching for new targets. Maybe some day statues of Eisenhower will even come down. After all, Ike’s army was segregated.
True, but maybe if Stacey Abrams sat on it
Our government made a point of forgiving the south so we could live peaceably side by side. The south is entitled to dot history with the men and women that should be remembered...and all southerners. This is history...stop making it into politics. And this is Obama who led this tearing down cr**.
Bacon, Lettuce and mater samwiches are the best ever.
How ‘bout telling them to ‘Eff Off in a very loud and public fashion?
People don’t go to Stone Mountain to be preached at.
If you want to destroy Stone Mountain as a tourist attraction, go ahead, ‘compromise.’
>>Bacon, Lettuce and mater samwiches are the best ever.<<
Yep, on soft white bread & with plenty of mayo, and bread & butter pickles, potato salad (or chips), and sweet tea on the side.
Doesn’t matter. Agreements with lefties are as good as their word. Two years max before the next round of outrage kicks in and new demands appear. The BLM display will remain, however. Prob a new position created for a ‘diversity coordinator’ to feed BS to the willing media. Then you have RINOs like Nikki Haley in SC who are ready to roll over at the drop of a hat.
I could see you typing but you didn’t say anything!! Rushmore sucks compared to Stone Mountain!!
I can’t wait
To see Both!
Yee Haw!
The state should immediately craft plans so that if a threat is raised to the monument, it can be sold back into private hands. Or if not sold, then put on an irrevocable 100 year lease to private hands, in either case with tax cessation.
The Egyptians had black slaves, where's the outrage about all of their statues?
Very very disappointed in Bill Stephens, the state appointed CEO of the park for caving to the radicals.
The Stone Mountain carving is the largest in the world, bigger than Mt Rushmore. Your critical assessment is way off base.
Where did I disagree? It’s largest. Carved on an enormous rock mountain. Proportionally, it’s overwhelmed and it’s impact is greatly lessened.
Stone Mountain is so big, that even Stacey Abrams can sit on it!
So the KKK part get talked about that the Democrat Party founded it, along with lynching? Or will it be fiction and say that the Trump supporting Americans created the KKK?
Not a southerner, but agree completely with their wanting their own monuments to a different time in history. Their heroes weren’t communists or fascists that I’m aware of, so what’s wrong with it? I’ve heard a lot about Stone Mountain & would like to see it someday.
funny thing gundog,
I remember integration in school in Tampa. It went over reasonably. Some protests and a little violence.
Then again I remember Integration in Boston when all hell broke loose with riots all over the place.
Tell me about the racist south as compared to say New England???
One solution is inexpensive plastic molds painted to look like bronze. Ship them around the country, put them everywhere, and fill them with sand. In areas that really deserve it, fill them from the septic tank for the first hater who tries to damage one.
Born in Arkansas, raised in AR, and Kansas until after the second grade. I remember black kids in school. Left in 1968, for coastal
Oregon. For about 8 years, the only black man I remember seeing was the man that shined shoes downtown. A black student showed up at the high school in ‘77, I believe. The only person that I remember having a problem with it was a teacher from the South. And he had a big problem with it.
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