CONCEPT
I propose this: 1) "topple" Lee at an angle (akin to images of historical toppling of Stalin, George III, Ceaucescu, Hitler, and Hussein statues); 2) leave Lee dangling there at the partly-toppled angle (with some manner of concealed steel support to keep him at the proper angle); 3) perhaps remove Lee's heroic appearance with a coat of pink, lavender, yellow, or baby blue paint; 4) wrap the statue with a wall-like surround (maybe lettering on iron ribbon-slabs at a 15-20 foot distance) with words explaining the new attitude: "Confederate General Lee led Confederate soldiers in a quest to preserve a white-supremacist rebel government; And at one time in the Jim Crow era, enough Southerners approved of this thinking that a costly monumental statue like this could be erected with the support of many local leaders and voters around 50 years later
NOTES / TALKING POINTS (yes, they are)
The Robert E Lee statue in recently-renamed Emancipation Park (the former Lee Park) has long been (and, sadly, continues to be) a focal point for neo-Confederate sentiment. Also, its presence on city-owned land creates the impression of municipal support for such sentiment. (Really? In progressive Charlottesville?) After the defeat of Jim Crow and segregation and "massive resistance" to desegregation, that's a problem.
While Lee was a military leader celebrated in some circles, he also led warfighters in deadly armed conflict in the name of political ideas against the United States government. Seen through a post-Oklahoma City Bombing and post-September Eleventh lens, Lee could be considered a leader of terrorists. (Violence
And these leaders were idolized. They were made legendary heroes. Once the patrolling Union soldiers of Reconstruction were gone, monumental heroic sculptures were commissioned. Townspeople throughout the South supported this unfortunate hero-worship. They gathered at such monuments on occasions of remembrance for their race-based Lost Cause. Many a Klu Klux Klan parade started or ended at such sites in the South back when KKK activity was practiced more openly.
In an era when most Americans finally do adhere to our country's founding principles without regard to race, what do we do with Jim Crow's elaborate and expensive monuments to the segregationists' heroes? Confederate apologists often cite a straw man slipery slope arguement: "If we take down Lee or Davis statues, what next? Take Washington and Jefferson statues away? They were slave-owners, after all." The 10 million or so listeners of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, and Mark Levin
But what of Lee?
The radio talkers speak of "erasing history." How "odd" that erasing history never comes up when considering that Berlin's Adolph Hitler Platz was renamed (rightfully, of course) after World War II. Somehow, it is ooooooonly an issue with them when American local governments take a stand against "tradition"
What the radio hosts keep failing to see is that a people can still remember their history, including the regrettable parts, without maintaining taxpayer-funded support of the monuments and pilgrimage sites of the overthrown regime (and/or its later apologists). Germany has learned this lesson of its many Nazi-era places. Regrettably, the post-war American South was not so effectively occupied, and so it was able to incrementally re-establish white-supremacist culture. One cannot imagine Germany of the 1970s putting up Himmler, Rommel, or Hitler statues; yet, in the 1880s to 1960s, almost every county in the South saw erection of CSA monuments. (Local memorials to local dead and wounded soldiers for local remembrance are a different category; monuments to the national leadership with no connection to local troops are at issue here.)
And what of Lee?
The options being keep Lee there or remove Lee, let me propose a third path: recontextualize Lee.
Once again, I propose this: 1) "topple" Lee at an angle (akin to images of historical toppling of Stalin, George III, Ceaucescu, Hitler, and Hussein statues); 2) leave Lee dangling there at the partly-toppled angle (with some manner of concealed steel support to keep him at the proper angle); 3) perhaps remove Lee's heroic appearance with a coat of pink, lavender, yellow, or baby blue paint; 4) wrap the statue with a wall-like surround (maybe lettering on iron ribbon-slabs at a 15-20 foot distance) with words explaining the new attitude: "Confederate General Lee led Confederate soldiers in a quest to preserve a white-supremacist rebel government; And at one time in the Jim Crow era, enough Southerners approved of this thinking that a costly monumental statue like this could be erected with the support of many local leaders and voters around 50 years later
The art would be preserved, the old historical attitude would be not covered-up, the transformed site becomes a place for peaceful contemplation of the societal changes. Perhaps organizations which would have fought legally for removal could contribute some of the saved court costs toward the transformation.
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