Posted on 07/07/2020 1:41:50 PM PDT by Perseverando
For a century, Monument Avenue has showcased some of the Confederacy’s most revered figures.
Soon, there will be a blank canvas.
Over the past week, the Richmond Times-Dispatch asked demonstrators, residents, artists and community leaders what they'd like to see on the new Monument Avenue.
There were suggestions of new statues, honoring a more inclusive set of heroes. Others wanted a space for performance or reflection, while some felt the empty pedestals should stay as a historical testimony of their own.
One point of agreement was that it must be a communitywide conversation.
Through restrictive covenants, real estate companies long advertised property there based on the premise that “no lots can ever be sold or rented in Monument Avenue Park to any person of African descent.”
Now, presented with a fresh opportunity to imagine one of the city's most prominent promenades, Richmond has the rare opportunity to redefine itself to the world.
Replacement statues Most nights, the Robert E. Lee monument is adorned with projections by Richmond-based artists Alex Criqui and Dustin Klein. On a recent night, they used images of Black Union soldiers.
The idea of replacing Stonewall Jackson, Jefferson Davis and others with famous Black Americans would reframe the message communicated by the street.
Suggestions for replacement statues collected for this story ranged from leaders of the civil rights movement — Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr. and W.E.B. Du Bois — to locals such as civil rights attorney Oliver Hill and Richmond Planet editor John Mitchell Jr.
Richmond’s Paul DiPasquale, the sculptor of Monument Avenue’s Arthur Ashe statue, has helped the city take down Ashe’s Confederate counterparts. He said the intention is to eventually remove the bases upon which previous statues stood.
(Excerpt) Read more at richmond.com ...
Maybe a giant red toilet with the Soviet or Chinese flag.
Or maybe the left would prefer a monument of a pile of aborted babies, paid for with our taxpayer funded “arts” support.
They can put up their statue of Tawana Brawley and a squeegee man shaking down people for money.
It doesn’t matter. They have destroyed one of the most iconic avenues in America. Glad I saw it before they tore it down. Guess I need to make my way down to Stone Mountain fairly soon, before the American Taliban reduce it to rubble.
I contrast your small-soul view to that of a real American. (Dwight Eisenhower was an army general in WWII and the 34th president of the U.S.)
Dear Dr. Scott:
Respecting your August 1 inquiry calling attention to my often expressed admiration for General Robert E. Lee, I would say, first, that we need to understand that at the time of the War between the States the issue of secession had remained unresolved for more than 70 years. Men of probity, character, public standing and unquestioned loyalty, both North and South, had disagreed over this issue as a matter of principle from the day our Constitution was adopted.
General Robert E. Lee was, in my estimation, one of the supremely gifted men produced by our Nation. He believed unswervingly in the Constitutional validity of his cause which until 1865 was still an arguable question in America; he was a poised and inspiring leader, true to the high trust reposed in him by millions of his fellow citizens; he was thoughtful yet demanding of his officers and men, forbearing with captured enemies but ingenious, unrelenting and personally courageous in battle, and never disheartened by a reverse or obstacle. Through all his many trials, he remained selfless almost to a fault and unfailing in his faith in God. Taken altogether, he was noble as a leader and as a man, and unsullied as I read the pages of our history.
From deep conviction, I simply say this: a nation of men of Lee’s calibre would be unconquerable in spirit and soul. Indeed, to the degree that present-day American youth will strive to emulate his rare qualities, including his devotion to this land as revealed in his painstaking efforts to help heal the Nation’s wounds once the bitter struggle was over, we, in our own time of danger in a divided world, will be strengthened and our love of freedom sustained.
Such are the reasons that I proudly display the picture of this great American on my office wall.
Sincerely,
Dwight D. Eisenhower
And tell the black slave owners
When the left demands an “honest conversation” it means “sit still and shut up while we tell you what POS’s you are”. The current frenzy of destroying of historical markers (statues) is the American version of a part of Mao’s Cultural Revolution referred to as “attacking the Four “Olds” of the culture -old customs, old culture, old habits, and old ideas. In 1984, the process was described as “the memory hole”. Whether Stalinist or Maoist, the construction of a fake history justifying the current and future activities of the state must be preceded by removing any inconvenient markers from the past. I get a lot of sideways glances when I refer to ANTIFA, BLM, media, academia and leftists as modern day Maoists. But if the shoe fits, it fits.
Why does Seattle have such a statue?
Erect monuments to their socialist/communists heroes: Marx, Lenin, Stalin, Khrushchev, Mao, Castro, Che, Kim Il Sung, and the various communist dictators of the former Warsaw Pact Eastern European countries. And Margret Sanger.
Just rename Monument Ave to Black Lives Matter BLVD so the rest of us will know to stay off of it. Have an “on the fence” friend who used to live off Monument. Her house was broken into almost every time she left town over a long weekend. Smart people don’t live in the City of Richmond for good reason.
White Southerners are no longer part of their “community.” Not if they respect Southern heritage. They will not even allow one Confederate statue (say, Lee, or Maury, the most inoffensive) to be left. They want statues to be put up to celebrate their victory over white Southerners.
}:-)4
Pol pot.
The Chief Editor of the Richmond Times-Dispatch taking it up the butt from Mao.
Bravo!!!!
ZARDOZ
Keep it statueless and barren which is a true representation of what transpired and what the city represents now.
Actually, I don't know the history behind the giant Lenin statue in Seattle, but now that you've asked I think I'll look it up.
How about a statue of Bubba Wallace tying a noose. Jussie Smollet with a noose around neck. Al Sharpton putting Tawana Brawley in a dumpster. Jessie Jackson looking behind him and seeing a white guy behind him.
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