What should happen to Confederate Statues?

[milestogo]

46 votes, 0 passes | Time left: Unlimited
	Take them down and destroy them
	18 (39%)
	Leave them in place
	1 (2%)
	Move them to a history museum
	25 (54%)
	Let the people vandalize them
	1 (2%)
	OTHER
	1 (2%)
	0 DU members did not wish to select any of the options provided.
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[JustFiveMoreMinutes]

1. Move everything to Stone Mountain (Tucker GA) ......

... since they'll never change the carving on the Mountain Face...

Might as well as make it a Confederate Museum.

Might want to move the Ark there as well.

[Hoyt]

9. Oh, Hell No. :) I'm for sandblasting that crud off the side of the mountain and replacing it with

John Lewis, MLK, and all the Civil Rights icons from Georgia.


But, until then, I guess the park is as good a place as any. The damn place was owned by an honest to dog KKK Grand Wizzard -- or whatever they call themselves -- before selling it to the state.

I have never understood why anyone goes to that park -- well, anyone other than ignorant white wingers. It's a blight.

[maxsolomon]

28. Sandblasting won't get er dun.

It will require dynamite and chisels and millions of dollars.

[Hoyt]

36. I'm ready to contribute. In 1920s they sold silver coins to finance the damn carving. Why not now?

[maxsolomon]

38. I'm in.

State of GA needs to be in, too.

[Hoyt]

39. That would be a problem right now, but who knows what the future holds.

[hlthe2b]

2. Take them to the appropriate civil war battleground museums, but...

they should face similar statutes of union counterparts.

[milestogo]

3. I think its important to preserve history - because there are always people who want to erase it.

That said, these statues don't have to be in everyone's face every day.

[demmiblue]

10. +1

[Caliman73]

13. What history though?

Most of those statues were put up in the 1920's during the time when Jim Crow was in full swing, and it was done with the intent to keep Southern Black people "in their place" by showing them that White Confederate sympathizers were in power.

Most of the historical statues were placed about a decade after the war, in placed designated as battlegrounds.

We need to be careful which history we are preserving.

If those statues are put on display with full context, then okay, but I think those statues were actually meant to distort history.

[Lochloosa]

20. The same reasoning the Taliban destroyed two Buddhist statues in Afghanistan.

All history is not always pretty, but it is history and everyone can learn from it.

[Caliman73]

29. So the Taliban destroyed statues which predated Islam by a hundreds of years...

Because they distorted history?

I think you need to go back and rethink your answer.


Taliban destroyed those statues and many others because they wanted to destroy the history of other cultures in their desire to establish a caliphate as per their sect of Islam.


The monuments put up by DoC and other racist groups have little actual cultural or historical value, except to point out America's continued struggle with White Supremacy and Racism.

Again, if they were to be displayed in such a context in a museum about race and American racism, then fine. They have no historical or cultural value outside of that context.

[Lochloosa]

32. I agree about putting them in a museum, but they are part of history. Not our Civil War history

but the history of the 20's, 30's etc.

I would classify them more a part of our Civil Rights history also and should be part of that.

[Caliman73]

34. They are part of the history of Racism in America, which persists to this day.

They should be labeled as such.

Not general civil rights or any other less up front category. "The history of Racism in America".

[Solomon]

44. Lol. What a pivot! History of the 20s and 30s?

They should be torn down and cast away.

[Alacritous Crier]

21. Yup....

most were placed by the Daughters of the Confederacy during the spread of the "Lost Cause" lie.

[Blue_true]

30. You make a good point. Statues that were erected after the war to honor

confederate figures should be preserved in a museum, but taken from public parks and squares.

Statues that were erected out of racist sentiment long after the way should be taken down and either destroyed or sold. If people want to put them up on private property, so be it, as long as they can't be viewed from a public facility or roadway.

[Voltaire2]

26. almost zero of these statues have any historical value

most were put up in modern times, like the 60s.

[Atticus]

4. Urinals? nt

[Aristus]

5. Put them in museums, in a special gallery dubbed

These Guys Fucking Lost!

[ace3csusm]

12. THats what ive been saying their losers why do they want to continue to revisit that they lossssssss

[WhiskeyGrinder]

6. Fucking trash them.

Confederate statues are not history, and removing them does not erase history.

[ProfessorGAC]

25. This

The historical facts are well documented.
Statues of traitorous failures add nothing to the historical record.

[yonder]

7. Secretly bury them all like those terra cotta Chinese soldiers.

If discovered in the future, let someone else try to make sense of it.

[demmiblue]

8. Museum (depending on the museum).

It provides a good opportunity to spark discussions about our past, our present and our future.

[madville]

11. Historical and war museums would be a good place

Against destroying them, preserve them for history.

[Laelth]

14. I am torn on this issue.

I value history—the good, the bad, and the ugly.

But my ultimate answer is this. The fate of Confederate statues must be decided by the citizens of the cities and states in which they are located. I don’t think that I have the right to tell these cities and states what to do with their own public property.

-Laelth

[ProfessorGAC]

27. Is The History Not Well Documented?

Statues of treasonous losers add what to the established history?

[Laelth]

46. They serve as a living reminder of a racist past.

Such reminders are useful. I think a reminder that racism is STILL REAL can be productive. It’s better than HIDING a racist past and sweeping it under the rug, but, ultimately, I think it’s up to the citizens of the cities and states in which such monuments reside.

-Laelth

[LeftInTX]

15. We sent our's to a local confederate veterans group

I think they have their own cemetery, but it was such as heated issue at the time, the destination location was kept secret.

Most states in the south have confederate cemeteries.

Many of these statue are owned by the Daughters of Confederate States and Sons of Confederate Veterans. Get the statues off public property and back into private hands where they belong.

[PaulRevere08]

16. I dunno, what did we do to all the Benedict Arnold statues?

Oh, right, we opted not to build statues to traitors.

[Caliman73]

37. There is one, to my knowledge.

A boot, I believe dedicated to the actions before the treason.

Arnold was a good field commander who helped win some important battles for the Americans. He felt that he was overlooked for command and thus decided to turn coat.

Nothing glorifying him though and he is only thought of as a traitor now, as should the confederates.

[mtngirl47]

17. Take them to the Noah's Ark place in KY

That way they can all go see their religious stuff and confederate stuff in one place

[Maru Kitteh]

18. My head says museum, my heart says destroy.

[hunter]

19. Blow them up, melt them down.

Finish the damned Civil War.

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

22. I can't find a clip of it...

But in the Season 9 episode of M*A*S*H called "Depressing News" Hawkeye builds a 'monument' out of an excess of tongue depressors the camp receives.

And then when the Stars and Stripes comes to do an article and take a picture of it for morale, he uses a roll of Primacord that a departing wounded soldier gives him to blow it up.

Wrap 'em all in Primacord and light the fuse (from a safe distance, of course.)

We could sell pay-per-view tickets for it, even. Move 'em all to an abandoned quarry and blow 'em up.

[Archetypist]

23. I would most like to see them destroyed on live TV.

Then make a museum showing video clips of that. I would settle for a museum that houses the statues in interpretive exhibits. I just feel they need to cease to exist as physical objects. The same way the swastika was taken down all over Germany.

[tenderfoot]

24. If they take down the statues that means everyone has to read books to find out that they lost.

eom

[DBoon]

31. They aren't history

most of them are in place to intimidate African Americans. The statues don't actually commemorate a past event - they are meant to put people in their place.

They serve no civilized purpose.

[SWBTATTReg]

33. I was going to say destroy them, but then on further reflection, instead, maybe sell and get our

public dollars back (if government owned) and use the proceeds solely for good, scholarships to kids, etc., but if privately owned, then the statues need to be removed from public grounds/public display by the owners (Daughters of the Confederacy, whomever, to do as they chose, kind of like what happened earlier when a wave of these statues were removed recently (last five years or so).

Like the nazi memorabilia, a lot was destroyed, some went into museums so future generations can understand for themselves the disgusting attributes of the Nazi regime. There's always going to be a market for such items unfortunately. At least get some money out of it.

This is a hard question to answer, such as the one question that has been asked in the past, what to do w/ all of the Nazi medical research that went on in prison / labor camps? Most, if not all of the answers I have seen on this (medical research derived from such sources) is to destroy that work, which I agree w/.

Things have a habit of being rediscovered again and again if they are worth it, thus any so called 'medical' advances made by the Nazi medical research will be discovered again. I say this because a lot of discoveries made of various things seem to come in groups, e.g., multiple groups at the same time discovered things etc., so I don't worry anymore that such gee whiz advances are super critical, they're not.

Destroying the statues seem to rank censorship in a fashion, and I don't condone censorship, but at least get some good out of these items, but don't display in a public place, there are other far more valuable things or far more better people to display than these hateful items.

However, if voices cry out for these hateful items to be destroyed, I won't stop them. I want my friends to be satisfied and happy w/ how these hateful symbols of our country's past are handled, and if being destroyed is what they want, then be it.

[struggle4progress]

35. Let's not pretend it didn't happen. But we needn't glorify the thugs in public spaces

[BlueJac]

40. They were traitors, get rid of them

[fishwax]

41. Smash them to pieces, and put a few of the pieces on display in a museum

with pictures and context of their racist origins and slavery-defending inspirations, so that this dark history isn't lost.

[RichardRay]

42. Leave them right where they are.

To each one, add a large, clear sign describing who the person was, and including information on how the statue got there. At the bottom put an apology.

[MoonlitKnight]

43. Please rethink the idea of confederate museums

Do we have a Benedict Arnold museum?
If anything it would be like WW2 museums that show the criminality of traitors. Like Holocaust museums and the ones in Europe like in Warsaw that show the Nazi and Soviet atrocities so we never forget. And they don’t have statues.

[JustGene]

45. Melt them

and use them for statues/memorials of murdered Black folks/slaves

[leftyladyfrommo]

47. I have mixed feelings.

These were not people to be glorified but it's dangerous to rewrite history. We need to remember the mistakes of the past. Erasing them leaves us vulnerable to making them all over again.

[MoonlitKnight]

48. I don't need to see statues of Hitler

To remember how evil he was.

[Baclava]

49. Why statues of losers? Put up Grant and Sherman statues in every city in the South, as a reminder

... of who won the war, they should never forget to never repeat it

[SoonerPride]

50. Tear them down. Melt them down.

No trophies for racists and traitors.

No putting that shit in museums either.

Melt them down.

[onethatcares]

51. turn them into plowshares

n/t

[ibegurpard]

52. They don't belong in prominent public places

And should be removed.
I'm not comfortable with their destruction however. In a museum with context explaining their notoriety perhaps?