Capitol Square Monuments

Not even honoring the memory of the 40,000 North Carolina soldiers who lost their lives in the war? There are statues on the Capitol grounds honoring the memory of our lost soldiers for every major war. I don’t think anybody other than a few misguided souls are actually celebrating anything about the Civil War and our slavery history. This will be my last comment on this subject. Not why I am on here. I feel like I am on FB. :upside_down_face:

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I feel like people who participated in an armed revolt against their country are traitors who shouldn’t be honored with statues. Then again that’s how America was founded, too. I’d like to think the American Revolution was fought for better ideals, but that’s tricky too. Hindsight is 20/20…

As a biased, relocated Yankee whose family was mostly or completely not even living in America when this took place, I have mixed and not very strong feelings on all of this. I don’t care about statues because to me they’re pieces of metal I don’t even pay attention to. I also realize they’re symbols and mean different things to different people, some of whom feel very strongly about them. I feel like a reasonable compromise would be to put them in a museum park designed for that purpose, where people can see them as a piece of history, not as an implicit endorsement of those attitudes and times by our current government.

I wasn’t going to say anything, but since it has its own thread now… :grin:

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Think I will ignore this tread, one that will go on for ages and get nowhere.

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My Dad’s side is from Chicago and my Mom is from Germany so I don’t have a real side in this issue based on my family history either. But your comment about a good percentage of American relatives were traitors ( I would never say that even I thought it was true) is probably why a lot of southerners don’t like people from the north moving down here… just saying… :wink:

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Damn Yankees!!!

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As someone who was born and raised in the deep south, lived my entire life in southern states, and whose family has historic roots in Mississippi, I’ve experienced plenty of “perspectives” on the confederacy. I know plenty of people from college in Alabama who would consider me a traitor for suggesting we move the confederate statues. Still think moving them is the right call.

Just seems like the south in general and in this case North Carolina in particular has better things it can honor with a statue on state capitol grounds. Anybody for a Pepsi monument? :laughing:

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I think this may be one item where people are talking past each other…
Moving to another location vs. tearing down (read destroying)…? :thinking:

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I vote destroy. 99% of them were put up post civil-war by racist white people that just couldn’t let it go. Let it go, y’all… the Confederacy was destroyed and thus is a non-existent country. Let’s celebrate OUR country. Regardless of what’s done with them, tribute statues to a non-existent country that fought for the right to continue using slave labor should not be on our capitol grounds, PERIOD.

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Lol fair point. I don’t bring that up with my in-laws at Christmas…

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I always wonder what the end game is for people who think similarly as you do. It seems like you are actually fostering and creating more division and more hate without any real end game that I can discern. Are you happy with just getting rid of the civil war statues? Or do you think schools, buildings, streets, etc… should all be renamed if the person they were named after were known to be slave holders? Should the Washington Monument and the Jefferson Memorial be renamed? Should they be removed from the faces of our American money? Honestly, that has always been a question that I have wondered about. When does it end?

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100% of the Civil War monuments were done after the Civil War. We didn’t have 1% built by Nostradamus or something.

That said, no memorial to Pepsi. They ditched us for NY. No to the reverse carpetbagger. Cheerwine or death.

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Pepsi, born and bankrupted in the Carolinas!

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There is no doubt that the confederate monuments are loaded with political meaning - but then what monument isn’t? If you are inclined, this is a very smart article, written by a Raleighite, that I use regularly when I teach my New South Class. It deals specifically with NC, especially with Raleigh and the confederate monuments.
http://www.southerncultures.org/article/landmarks-power-building-southern-past-1885-1915/

I firmly believe that we are free to move monuments, but we should never destroy them. Our history becomes poorer as a result. What we should be thinking about is what can we memorialize now. Our goal should be to add to the story - not ripping out pages, not burning books, not destroying monuments. If we go this way, it won’t end. It can’t end, because the cancel culture can never be sated.

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I think all of this is a really interesting discussion, especially with reasonable people. I certainly didn’t think much about any of it before I moved down here, so I’ve formed all of my opinions living here for 10 years, in somewhere I consider my forever home. And I continue to form my opinions based on discussions.

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Next to this form being about a place I still consider my home, the civil discussions with civil and civic minded folks is my favorite part of this forum. :slight_smile:

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Destroying a racist statue on the front lawn of North Carolina is not book burning–the history of racism, violence, and slavery in North Carolina is a permanent scar in our collective memory that will never be erased. As someone who’s family has personally been targeted by the KKK of Union County I just roll my eyes at Southern history revisionists strategies to keep remnants of Jim Crow alive.

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Those statues have no business on tax-funded land. With the racist, murderous history behind them I find it unbelievable that folks won’t concede the horror behind them. I don’t need a statue to know or learn history. That’s what books and teachers are for.

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A lot of people say the same thing about the USA (history in Vietnam, middle east, etc). Jim crow happened under the US flag.
So where does it end? Moving all the statues that offend someone. Then renaming all buildings named after racist white guys. Then getting white guys off the coins and currency. Etc. It’s silly for people to get angry over what they do.

How about name of Raleigh? Named after a fellow who helped accelerate the colonization of Indian land. Time to change the name of the capital city? (maybe we should start a poll…)

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He did get his head cut off. I think he paid his dues :wink:

I realize it wasn’t for that offense… Also he basically got the Western world addicted to tobacco, so thanks for that too.

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I vote we change the name of our capital city to something unique, such as Springfield.

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