Dismantling 121 Year Old Confederate Monument in Louisville///Move To Appropriate Site

Good, bad or otherwise the monument is being moved some 40 miles away to a more appropriate site. The site is a civil war re-enactment site south west of Louisville.

A work crew began to dismantle a Confederate monument in Louisville, Kentucky on Saturday, the mayor said, in the latest move to take down or relocate symbols of the slaveholding Southern Confederacy from the American Civil War.

Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer in a pair of messages on Twitter showed photos of figures that had been removed from the monument.

A few more examples of historic and controversial symbols of the Civil War begin removed. Is it time to or is it people refusing to view a unpleasant part of history that lost a horrible war?

The Washington National Cathedral said this year it was removing Confederate battle flags from two stained glass windows honoring Confederate Generals Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee.

Last year, the Confederate flag was removed from the grounds of the South Carolina state capitol, which was one of the most prominent placements for the flag, following the massacre of nine black churchgoers in Charleston. The man charged with the murders was seen in photographs posing with the battle flag carried by Confederate soldiers.

ca.news.yahoo.com...

Yep and those that are really interested in what happened 140-50 years ago can really appreciate it's beauty.

This is wrong imo. Why? Well, you are denying history to many people who might not encounter it where it is being relocated.

It's part of your culture and damn, you don't have much compared to European countries. Don't hide it, embrace it. There were brave boys on both sides, despite what the victors would have you believe.

a reply to: Cobaltic1978

History is easier to deny if the physical evidence is gone.

If you minimalize or bury history you condemn your self to repeat it. History is history, it's not always pleasant. But it is important. Making a few progressives feel good isn't.

originally posted by: seasonal
a reply to: Cobaltic1978

History is easier to deny if the physical evidence is gone.

I live on an housing estate, where most of the houses have scars from the blitz experienced during WWII.

I live in a seafaring city where there is an absence of its culture. There are particular artefacts still lying around, but we need to be true to our history, even the most unpleasant elements and learn from them.

I think the line that was crossed with the move of this is a scary reality that goes to show that if you allow people to make you keep your opinion to yourself, illogical things can happen.
Why move it, if it is such a decisive symbol destroy it.

If you minimalize or bury history you condemn your self to repeat it.

a reply to: Nickn3

a reply to: seasonal

To remove the past is to forget it, to forget the past is a sure road that lead's to repeating the mistake's of the past.
Even if some find it offencive it should remain in order so that the past can not be forgotten.
BUT at the same time it like many such monument's has been used to divide a society rather than to unify it and the Civil right's movement should have a bigger and better monument to MLK and other peaceful right's leaders right next to it and towering over it so that there victory even if there are some trying to undo it today can also never be forgotten.

Removing these removes part of the education in learning about the past whether good or bad parts of it. If you remove the Confederate rock relif from Stone Mountain, Georgia then it's just a mountain when people visit, not part of the state and the South's history overall.

a reply to: seasonal
It's time and they are moving it to the location of a civil war re enactment site. Makes sense.

originally posted by: Nickn3
If you minimalize or bury history you condemn your self to repeat it. History is history, it's not always pleasant. But it is important. Making a few progressives feel good isn't.

I don't think this is about 'making a few progressives happy'.

But let's all make a big deal about moving this, seems to be the latest trend to support symbols of racism, even to the point of complaining about moving them to where historical re enactments are held.

a reply to: reldra

You do understand that the "regular" American flag was flying over the injustice of slavery as well?

a reply to: seasonal

There are a lot of beautiful "confederate" monuments here in Charlottesville VA too. Beautiful old copper & bronze statues of Robert E. Lee (on his horse), Stonewall Jackson, etc. So the PC crowd starting bugging our local elected officials about having them taken down right after the great confederate flag brouhaha. Said elected officials in their infinite spinelessness decided to do it, but did so without having a public hearing on it.

Once the people did find out about it though, they went berserk! Almost pitchforks & torches....lol.

Needless to say, said resolution was torn up into a million pieces, never to be seen again.

Thank god for small mercies, sanity and an appreciation of history.

I think it all depends on the setting / context. Having confederate monuments at state houses seems symbolic of having confederate ideals in government which are not limited to, but do include slavery. However, we should not remove history. History isnt cut and dry. Its not all one thing or another and its an important part of who we are and,how we got here.

I think such monuments not at statehouses should be left alone, and ones from statehouses can be moved to historical sites, since they are particularly divisive even if not cut and dry symbolically.

Otoh doing thinga like tearing down a thomas jefferson statue are completely unamerican and make no sense. Such attacks on history are more akin to the cultural destruction of China by Mao and the communists.

Some more coming down, this time in New Orleans.

Removal of the first of four Confederate monuments, the Liberty Place Monument.

Good riddance.

K~

Why is it good riddance? The civil war was not fought over slavery. Learn you history. The reason they will be taken down or moved is so schools can now teach that racism was taken care of when there was none. This reminds me of how Islam destroys historical and religious items.

So, is Mt Rushmore next?

a reply to: matafuchs

Good riddance to the celebration of traitorous slave holding scumbags.
Statues celebrating seditious slavers who lost their war of regression against the United States of America should never have been allowed.
Nazis didn't get to create statues of Hitler or Goring post WW2 so why should Johnny Rebs be allowed theirs?
The South will never rise again & that's progress.

Too bad Lincoln dropped the ball, he should have hung, shot or slit every damn Reb after the war.
Would have saved the States a lot of grief over the years.

K~

a reply to: aethertek

I am not advocating slavery but that is not why many of those people had statues built of them. In their time it was legal so whether we like it or not they were not breaking the law. Many blacks also owned slaves as well as Yankees to the North so this is not a Johnny Reb thing.

Sounds like you wanted some mass killings AKA Hitler...