Confederate monuments in KC

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DaveKCMO
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Confederate monuments in KC

Post by DaveKCMO »

any others? i'm told there's one at 69th and troost.
also:
A No Place For Hate rally and march is scheduled start at noon Sunday at the J.C. Nichols Fountain in Country Club Plaza and end at the Confederate memorial. The group organizing the event plans to pass out petitions to remove the Confederate memorial and rename the J.C. Nichols Fountain.
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Re: Confederate monuments in KC

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Re: Confederate monuments in KC

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earthling
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Re: Confederate monuments in KC

Post by earthling »

This is all interesting as it indeed could lead to removal of statues of presidents who, say, owned slaves. Let each community/neighborhood decide what they want to represent and let others criticize it. That's America.

Some are comparing this to religious pieces in public parks. In that case, allow all religions/belief symbols or none, but public properties should not be allowed to sponsor/favor a specific religion. If there is any comparison, perhaps allow counter pieces next to Confederate monuments or allow none. Either way, taking down 'history' that isn't appreciated by its residents is fine, let them duke it out within themselves and if taking it down is the decision, so be it. Even if a president because of owning slaves.
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Re: Confederate monuments in KC

Post by Highlander »

This whole debate has turned into an all or nothing quagmire.

I don't have issues with monuments to confederate soldiers many of which were duped, misled and conscripted by their leaders into fighting a war to protect a poorly thought through secession. When I start seeing statues to Jefferson Davis or even Lee, I have to start wondering what kind of message the originators of the statue and their contemporary supporters were and are trying to send. The Civil War was ultimately fought to prolong slavery - other reasons are consistently spit out by southern apologists - but they all circle back to slavery being the ultimate cause of the war. I don't see any reason to honor men who would have been lost to history had it not been for their decision to lead an insurrection against the US and fight for a doomed institution the rest of the western world had long abandoned by 1860. Keep the monuments to confederate leaders and their symbols in battlefields and museums. They do not belong in our cities.

As for Jefferson and other that may have owned slaves, they are honored for our service to the country. I hope people can see the difference - Lee and Davis did nothing especially noteworthy in US history other than participate in a rebellion for a pretty awful cause.
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Re: Confederate monuments in KC

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The Atlantic had a pretty good article about the spike in Confederate memorials at the turn of the century after Plessy vs Ferguson when southern states were implementing repressive racial policies - and then again during the height of the Civil Rights movement. The case can be made that those monuments were constructed as a means to intimidate black populations. To me, that's the difference between those monuments and those to people like Jefferson and Washigton.

I don't think our schools do a great job of really diving into the post-Reconstruction south and educating people that - while we did win the war and end slavery - african americans were treated like garbage by this country. I never understood as a kid why we would need anti-lynching laws - and moreover - why we could never pass them. Lynching is extrajudicial murder - largely carried out against blacks post-Reconstruction. Blows my mind sometimes...
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Re: Confederate monuments in KC

Post by DaveKCMO »

it's covered in plywood as of today. classy for ward parkway.
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