Portland: down goes George Washington

[Ex Lurker]

https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2020/06/george-washington-statue-toppled-during-22nd-consecutive-day-of-portland-protests.html

Portland’s 22nd consecutive day of protests against police brutality and systemic racism was defined by downtown and North Portland demonstrations, as well as the toppling of a George Washington statue along Sandy Boulevard.

Several hundred demonstrators rallied at North Portland’s Jefferson High School, a smaller group gathered outside the downtown Justice Center and a third group assembled at the statue, which became the latest monument to be torn down by protesters.

Statues of historical figures have become frequent targets during the nationwide protests against police brutality and broader racism. Monuments to the Confederacy in Southern cities have been torn down by protesters, or in some cases removed by city leaders.

In Oregon, protesters have previously torn down a statue of Thomas Jefferson outside his namesake high school and University of Oregon statues of pioneers that had been linked to celebrations of white supremacy.

The Washington statue had stood at Northeast Sandy Boulevard and 57th Avenue since the 1920s.

Washington owned over 100 slaves, and his slaves and hundreds more owned by other people worked his Mount Vernon plantation.

[Loki Liesmith]

1. Hope they put it back up.

[brewens]

2. I think it's long over due to look at slavers for what they were. It had to be hard to miss that

those people didn't like being slaves. With everything else they claimed to stand for, there's no excuse for enslaving people.

[lagomorph777]

4. Time to face reality. Our founders wrote nice words but were flaming hypocrites.

We have to acknowledge that and build anew. We don't have to worship slavers.

[zipplewrath]

10. It's always been a dichotomy

The right tends to deify the "founders". The left has a tendency to sour on them over time.

They did some good work and gave us a good start. But in the end, they were as flawed as modern day politicians. I've often pointed out that many of the people that helped write the Constitution, also ended up being involved in the passage and use of the Aliens and Sedition acts. None of these people would pass any sort of ideological purity test.

[Alea]

13. Go back far enough and no one passes any kind of purity test.

Some people are given a break because there was no written history of what they did.

[sarisataka]

14. Should we take down the self admitted white supremacist

Abraham Lincoln?

He said during his debates with Stephen Douglas:

“I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races … I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of Negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races from living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be a position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race.”

While he was opposed to slavery he did not believe in equality

[LanternWaste]

18. Or maybe avoid the deification and glorification of any one person...

and rather raise monuments to ideas rather than people.

(but I certainly understand why and how that would stick in the craw of literalists...)

[empedocles]

3. Wish these 'excessivers' would wait until after the Election

Who are they anyway?

[Sherman A1]

5. I understand the desire to remove some statues

I wish however that folks would not do so in that someone is likely to get hurt in the process. Washington like many of the other founders was a mixed bag of good and less so. I don't believe I would remove his statue, but others are certainly entitled to differ.

[superpatriotman]

6. Stupidity is ruling the day it seems

Let's do all we can to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat

[DeminPennswoods]

16. Excellent point

All the statue toppling is doing now is focusing attention away from the real prize: defeating Trump, keeping control of the House and retaking the Senate.

These kinds of actions play right into Trump's plan to inflame and divide Americans.

[RelativelyJones]

7. Idiotic

[Alea]

8. Sad

Once the police are no longer around to protect the mobs from the citizens. Things are going to get sporty.

[Goodheart]

9. Going too far. So far that it alienates otherwise sympathetic people.

Without George Washington there would be no USA and its freedom to protest things like statues of George Washington.

[HotTeaBag]

11. Agreed.

At some point this is going to force Joe to make some kind of statement to the effect that while he understands the sentiment of wanting to take down Confederate symbols in all forms, at some point the definition of 'bad actor' needs to be examined.

He already had to come out against 'Abolishing Police' - at this point he doesn't need to be fighting both the Right and the Left.

[Yeehah]

15. Yeah, I'd hate live somewhere with no freedom like Canada,

Australia and the UK.

[aidbo]

12. Your sons and your daughters are beyond your command.

[Loki Liesmith]

20. Lol no

[WhiskeyGrinder]

17. The man bought enslaved people's teeth out of their mouths.

If there is a statue, it should tell the whole story.

[cayugafalls]

19. I'm torn on this subject. I acknowledge his history.

I do not dispute the fact that he was a slave owner and responsible for some despicable acts.

The statue of George Washington, however, unlike the confederate statues, are not meant in any way to infer his ownership of slaves or those acts, it is to honor his position as the first president and a signer on the constitution which remains to this day a living document that has allowed the country to grow beyond the original vision to become something greater. It was their vision, that has allowed us to change for the better.

I suppose I will catch some flack for this, but I need to work through this and that will take time.

[Raine]

21. America's first president, I just can't cheer them doing that

I know he had slaves but he was instrumental in the founding of this country.