The loss of memory by a nation is also the loss of its conscience.” Zbigniew Herbert
Those monuments should not be erased from memory they should serve as reminder that there were and are persons willing to hide and forget the truth, whitewash history, shove the dirt under the rug. Is not about hiding the truth, it is about exposing it more, making it more visible, educate future generations. Take those statues off their plinths, lay or let them stand besides it and rededicate appropriately, to show their new status as fallen idol.
Papier-mâché can be amazingly robust.
I’ve seen “I can’t believe this isn’t marble” statues that are 150+ years old that stand out in the open nearly all year round (except during the winter).
I think that in Turin “Corso Stati Uniti” (United States) have to be renamed back to “Corso Oporto” to avoid confusion , but for via Baltimora, via Filadelfia e via Boston could be switched to other cities, like via Trantor, via Paperopoli (Ducksburg) and via Gotham
One key distinction: Byrd is generally honored for his decades of work in the Senate, not for his early days in the Klan, which he later apologized for and publicly denounced many times.
Nobody but nobody buys the story that all those statues of Robert E. Lee or Jefferson Davis were meant to honor the non-Confederacy portion of their careers.
What the ever living fuck is West Virginia doing with statues of any Confederates? It was a Union State. Created specifically to split off Union supporting counties from Virginia.
More to the point, a memorial is not how we preserve history. A memorial is an expression of which parts of history we choose to honor and celebrate. We have museums and textbooks to remember the people who committed acts of evil and the context in which those acts of evil were committed. We don’t need to set aside public spaces for that purpose.
Public spaces that are currently being used are not like archaeological digs being studied by scientists
People have a right to put up and take down anything they want in the public square. The premise that anything that happens to be there right now must persist forever is absurd.
There are only about as many monuments to traitors in WV as there are in Washington DC.
One was erected in 1867 by people who actually knew the dead traitors, out of private money in a private graveyard. I rather wish they hadn’t, and I really wish that they didn’t still have decoration ceremonies.
Several are related to Stonewall Jackson, who was born in WV and was a general of some repute before the war before he turned coat. His residence is why these hateuments are there; and probably why they are still there. Had he not turned traitor he would have been worthy of statues. There is also a lake named for him. It was used to destroy his house and farm. It is with some glee that I note the traitor Stonewall’s death was a turning point of the war.
Most of them are located in counties close to the VA border.
