Except that the Lenin statue is (from what I gather), kept around for the purposes of mockery. I don't see that with the Confederate ones.Originally Posted by LA Ute
Except that the Lenin statue is (from what I gather), kept around for the purposes of mockery. I don't see that with the Confederate ones.
If so, that makes it better, IMO. Still, the statue portrays Lenin in a very heroic pose and is located in a very lefty part of a very liberal city. Color me a little skeptical. And in terms of pure villainy and murdererous impact on the world, General Lee is not even in the same universe as Lenin. I'd still rather see both of them in a museum in any place where people have to look at them while walking by.
Last edited by LA Ute; 08-21-2017 at 11:36 AM.
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Lenin was nothing short of a murderous genocidal maniac responsible for millions of deaths of innocent people, and am doubtful that the living descendants of those starved/killed under his and Stalins regime are amused by the statue, even when dressed in a skirt. Having said that, it's a private statue on private land, and, so as far as I'm concerned it's a free speech issue -- game, set and match for the owner of the statue. Plus, the local community doesn't seem too concerned about it, and these decisions when necessary should largely be made at the local level.
However, the liberal mayor of Seattle has recently found a conscience and has become empathetic to the Russian immigrants in his city and has called for the removal of the statue.
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I agree with you on the private land part of this, but I think it would be a nice gesture if the city bought the statue and moved it to a museum. To me the issue is, Whom do we honor? Maybe the intention here is not to honor Lenin, but it's ambiguous. With Lee and his fellow Confederate heroes, there's no question they are being honored in a big way, with hundreds of monuments, many built during Jim Crow; and quite a few in states that were not even part of the Confederacy.
Last edited by LA Ute; 08-22-2017 at 08:39 AM.
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
--Yeats
“True, we [lawyers] build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no engines. We paint no pictures - unless as amateurs for our own principal amusement. There is little of all that we do which the eye of man can see. But we smooth out difficulties; we relieve stress; we correct mistakes; we take up other men's burdens and by our efforts we make possible the peaceful life of men in a peaceful state.”
--John W. Davis, founder of Davis Polk & Wardwell
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