As the Jefferson DAVIS statue goes, so does Woodrow WILSON?

[UTUSN]

In my early teens, WAY long gone now by scores and decades, Woodrow WILSON was my Democratic hero (along with Andrew JACKSON). Back then, outside of any prompting from school, I read a seven volumes biography of him, which seemed massive and therefore authoritative for all time, and I crushed and wept over the dastardly treatment he got from the wingnuts who typically for wingnuts then and now, demolished him and his League of Nations and his noble idealism. That set for me the paradigm that wingnuts are forever backward and dastardly. And nasty and hateful.

So in a lifetime things change what we used to think we knew, something that has been accelerated for me here at DU over the past 15 years, for example on things like racism, colonialism, and genocide -- little things like that (cough).

I learned about the word "compartmentalize" during the Bill CLINTON years, and I still reserve part of me for some historical personages. I challenge anybody to come up with a name of anybody who can be 100% non-humanly pure.

So it has ever been that there are NO “for all time” historical superlatives. Well, I’ve got Alexander the Great now and some Roman emperors -- oh, wait...


*********QUOTE********

University’s report: President Wilson objected to the commission because he would be displayed next to Confederacy President Jefferson Davis. At the time he said, "I must express my entire unwillingness to have my effigy mounted as is suggested in association with the proposed memorial. Moreover... I don’t fancy the partner they offer me."

http://www.texasobserver.org/ut-austin-to-move-confederate-statue-jefferson-davis/

[font size=5]After Decades of Debate, UT-Austin Finally to Move Confederate Statue (Jefferson DAVIS)[/font]
.... The statues of Robert E. Lee, Albert Sidney Johnston and John H. Reagan as well as former Texas governor James Hogg, who did not have direct ties to the Confederacy, will remain. So will an inscription adjacent to the Littlefield Fountain dedicating the memorial “to the men and women of the Confederacy.” Fenves said he’s considering an explanatory plaque for the statues and inscription.

“Davis had few ties to Texas; he played a unique role in the history of the American South that is best explained and understood through an educational exhibit,” Fenves said in an email to the UT-Austin community. Explaining why the other statues would remain, Fenves wrote that Hogg, Johnston and Reagan “had deep ties to Texas” and “Robert E. Lee’s complicated legacy to Texas and the nation should not be reduced to his role in the Civil War.”

The figure of Woodrow Wilson will be relocated to “preserve the symmetry of the Main Mall,” Fenves said. ....

The statue of Virginia native Wilson was added in an effort to show national unity after World War I, but also fit neatly with the goal of honoring Southern nationalism, according to the task force. They added that Wilson was “known for overseeing the resegregation of the federal government.” ....

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[struggle4progress]

1. There's actually a good reason to move Woodrow at the same time

The Davis and Wilson statues were put there as a pair, allegedly celebrating North-South unity

UT will argue that, an aesthetic matter, removing only one leaves the space visually lop-sided

But that's not the real argument for moving both: the cheers about North-South unity were not at all harmless

We tend to forget that Wilson was raised a Southerner and remained a racist and segregationist his whole life. Quite a few contemporary observers noticed this during his time at Princeton. By the early 20th century, the federal civil service in Washington provided the only really integrated environment in the US. Upon election as President, Wilson set out to segregate the federal civil service and to eliminate employment opportunities there for African Americans. After a special showing of Birth of a Nation at the White House, Wilson infamously remarked: It is like writing history with lightning, and my only regret is that it is all so terribly true

The "North-South unity" cheered during that era was a wide consensus on white supremacy

[UTUSN]

2. As I said, I fully understand. I submit, as they said about Robt E. LEE, that WILSON's

contributions are a bit more "complicated" for a bit of salvaging. Btw, his statue is not going to be hidden in a basement, it's going to continue to be exhibited "in an exterior" place.

[struggle4progress]

3. All my heroes have feet of clay, and I suspect the clay in all of them goes up far beyond their feet

In retelling the ancient saga of Gilgamesh, the authors wrote "Noah was a righteous man, in his generation" -- and the commentators, wondering why it was necessary to add "in his generation," since obviously that was the time in which he lived, finally threw up their hands and said, "It means he was righteous, if considered in his time, but he would not be considered righteous today"

Francis Bacon remarked that we are wrong to consider those who came before us as the wise old ancient ones -- for they were really young and inexperienced compared to us, because we know something they did not: we know what became of them

Mercy and truth both matter. We should be merciful when looking back, but we should also be truthful

[UTUSN]

4. i don't see anything u and i disagree about here nt

[struggle4progress]

5. I agree