Posted on 12/27/2002 6:50:38 AM PST by yankeedame
Friday, December 27, 2002
Lincoln statue won't be embraced by all
The Associated Press
RICHMOND, Va. - Abraham Lincoln is returning to the capital of the Confederacy, much to the chagrin of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.
Five days before the Civil War ended in April 1865, the president and his youngest child, Tad, traveled to still-smoldering Richmond soon after Southern forces abandoned the city in flames. On April 5, 2003, the 138th anniversary of that visit, a bronze statue of the pair commissioned by the United States Historical Society will be unveiled at the Civil War Visitor Center of the National Park Service.
"Here is a national hero, a small boy, and a beautiful city by the James River, all united again," said Robert Kline, chairman of the nonprofit group society, which works on behalf of museums and other groups on projects of historic and artistic value. "This time Lincoln's in Richmond for all time."
Richmond, home to towering statues of Confederacy figures including Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson and J.E.B. Stuart, was abandoned after Union forces led by Gen. Ulysses S. Grant attacked on April 2, 1965.
The Sons of Confederate Veterans view the Lincoln statue as "a slap in the face of a lot of brave men and women who went through four years of unbelievable hell fighting an invasion of Virginia led by President Lincoln," Brag Bowling, the SCV Virginia commander, said Thursday. The group had only recently learned of the statue, and had no immediate plans to protest.
The life-size statue by sculptor David Frech will show Lincoln and his son on a bench against a granite wall. The words "To Bind Up The Nation's Wounds" will be etched into a capstone.
How does the fact that I see no problem with a statue that depicts an historical act make me a BGLWF?
I don't care whether they build the stupid statue or not.
If your complaint is that the statue will harm the self esteeeeeem of the Southron Man, I think it is you who must re-examine his 'conservative' beliefs.
You are a self-parody.
Custer was a Union hero in the Civil War. He fought proudly under Lincoln's banner - and you show him zero respect.
You cheer the renaming of St. Petersburg as Leningrad and Saigon as Ho Chi Minh City by Communist murderers.
I suppose if our enemies' jihad were successful you'd change your screenname to achmed al-chookter and call for the renaming of Washington DC as Mohammedtown?
This "victor should always piss on the vanquished" thing is indicative of a five year old's mentality.
Only by racists, rednecks and/or hillbillys.
I cheer it because I pointed it out as a fact?
I suppose if our enemies' jihad were successful you'd change your screenname to achmed al-chookter and call for the renaming of Washington DC as Mohammedtown?
If they won, I would fight as a part of whatever Union Army continued to exist. If we finally defeated the Jihadis and reoccupied Washington, would you have a problem with us renaming it and putting up a statue of the Pres?
This "victor should always piss on the vanquished" thing is indicative of a five year old's mentality.
Oh no, are you going to give me the 'winners of Life's Lottery must give back their fair share' speech, Mr Gephardt?
The War on Drug threads have the same type of people.
Now you're really reaching.
I never mentioned feelings.
Your argument is twofold: there should be a statue of Lincoln in Richmond because he went to Richmond. If your criterion is that a statue should be erected to Lincoln wherever he happened to roam, then there are tens of thousands of missing Lincoln statues through America that remain curiously unbuilt.
Seeing that your first argument is stupid and nonsensical, let's look at the second, which is: whoever wins a battle should put up statues to pat themselves on the back wherever they go. Kind of like a dog pissing to mark off his territory or a drug-dealer spray-painting to mark off his turf.
This compulsive need to rub people's noses in things is certainly a feeling, and not a very attractive one either.
Blacks are also the descendants of people enslaved in the north as well. Yankee bankers and shippers became filthy rich off the slave trade. It is well documented that ships from northern shipping companies still smuggled slaves into the country after the importation of slaves was outlawed in the 1850's.
The "emancipation" proclamation freed blacks only in the south where the federal government had no jurisdiction at the time; it did not free blacks in the north. General Grant was allowed to keep his slaves (who probably have descendants alive today) until they were freed by a Constitutional amendment after the war ended. (So much for the "great emancipator.")
And, last but not least, slavery was protected by the US Constitution. Slavery was a product of colonial America, not the south, and was perpetuated by the north as well as the south. So slavery is part of your culture too, like it or not.
LOL!
But I'm staying out of the debate and remaining right here in the shower:
"The way for a young man to rise is to improve himself every way he can, never suspecting that anybody wishes to hinder him. Allow me to assure you that suspicion and jealousy never did help any man in any situation. There may sometimes be ungenerous attempts to keep a young man down; and they will succeed, too, if he allows his mind to be diverted from its true channel to brood over the attempted injury. Cast about and see if this feeling has not injured every person you have ever known to fall into it." quoted from Abraham Lincoln, in a letter to W. H. Herndon, dated July 10, 1848
Actually, Custer was known as an arrogant pompous a$$ among the Union officer corp. There was an incident at Appomattox, a day or two before the surrender, while negotiations were going on as to how to organize it, when Custer stormed up to the confederate picket and demanded to be taken to Lee and get his surrender. He threw a real conniption and provided entertainment for both sides. They sent him out west after the war just to get rid of him. His ego made him not follow the game plan and stay within a the proscribed distance of another group of soldiers and supply, and that is why he got his sorry self stuck at Little Big Horn and caused all the deaths of himself and men.
Should the wealthy be forced by the government to hand over cash to the undeserving poor? Of course not.
Should the wealthy voluntarily decide to help the deserving poor? Certainly.
Can the victors engage in the childish practice of constantly shouting out "I won, you loser! I won! I won!"? Of course they can.
Should the victors focus on collegiality with their fellow citizens instead? If they're grownups, they probably will.
Erm, no.... I see no problem with erecting a statue where an event actually occurred.
Jeez, Albuquerque has a MLK Ave and a Cesar Chavez BLVD and they never even came here. I DO have a problem with that nonsense.
We even have a statue of Don Juan de Onate the Conquistador here that the local indians keep vandalizing.
I would've thought that the southerners were more circumspect and dignified than that. I guess I thought wrong....
On the nose... Hence not too many statues of him around. and It would be stupid to have one at the Little Big Horn.
Should the victors focus on collegiality with their fellow citizens instead? If they're grownups, they probably will.
Do you want reparations with that whine?
As is one of Lincoln in Richmond.
No Confederate would have bothered to pick up a rifle if he didn't believe he was fighting to preserve the principles that sparked the War of American Independence in the first place.
The Confederates saw themselves as the most patriotic and loyal followers of the Founding Fathers. And a close reading of the Federalist Papers reveals that the Framers were curiously Confederate in their thinking on a large number of issues.
I guess there are some neo-Confederates who want the nation's wounds to remain unhealed.
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