Free Republic

Four in ten Democrats agree with removing statues of George Washington as some leftist cities consider doing so, a Rasmussen Reports survey released Thursday found. While the survey found 77 percent of Democrats expressing at least a somewhat favorable view of the country’s first president and Revolutionary War hero, 40 percent at least somewhat approve of removing public monuments of the figure. Of those, 21 percent of Democrats “strongly” approve. However, 53 percent at least somewhat disapprove of doing so.

Ross Hetrick, president of the Thaddeus Stevens Society, assists sculptor Alex Paul Loza, as they unveil the new Thaddeus Stevens statue in front of the Adams County Courthouse, Saturday, April 2, 2022, in Gettysburg.

Attendees at the Oct. 4 ‘Free Palestine’ march were more focused on repeating anti-Israel slogans than helping liberate Gazans from Hamas.It usually takes 10 minutes, 15 at most, to get downtown from southeast D.C. On Saturday, it took over an hour. Traffic was at a standstill, and the metro was overflowing as protesters descended upon the nation’s capital to attend the People’s Forum “Free Palestine” march.The largest “pro-Palestine” protest in American history was centralized at Freedom Plaza — just a block away from the White House — but spilled into the surrounding areas as thousands of protesters splintered off into...

The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) filed a lawsuit against the Manhattan District Attorney‘s office on Thurday over the earlier seizure of a headless bronze statue, estimated to be worth $20 million. The museum stated in its lawsuit that it “does not question that the New York district attorney sometimes gets it right and returns true stolen items to foreign nations. Based on the evidence adduced thus far and the opinions of experts available to the museum, this is not one of those times.” The court filing says the CMA lawfully purchased the “Draped Male Figure” for $1.85 million from...

The tourist was caught breaking Roman statues in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. On Thursday, a Jewish American tourist was arrested by Israeli police after he was caught throwing works of art on the floor at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. The 40-year-old suspect defaced two ancient Roman statues from the 2nd century AD. After questioning, Israeli police say the suspect considered the statues "to be idolatrous and contrary to the Torah." The man's lawyer Nick Kaufman denied his client as a religious fanatic and instead said the tourist was suffering from a mental disorder that psychiatrists have labelled the...

New York City is considering a measure that would essentially remove statues of Founding Fathers such as George Washington, all while facing a migrant crisis costing taxpayers billions. According to a list found in New York City’s council agenda for Tuesday, September 19, officials will consider a bill that would:

Denver, Colo., May 26, 2023 / 13:15 pm Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco said Thursday that prosecutors’ decision to reduce the charge against activists who destroyed a parish’s statue of a saint from felony to misdemeanor sends the signal that attacks against the Catholic Church can continue with impunity. “It is clear to me that this course of action would not have been taken with anyone else. In fact, if the same kind of offense had been committed against another religious congregation or group, it would almost certainly have been prosecuted as a hate crime,” Cordileone said. Cordileone’s statement...

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A man who drove the car that helped pull down the statue of a Civil War hero and abolitionist outside of the Wisconsin state Capitol during a night of protests in 2020 has been sentenced to six months in jail. The statue of Hans Christian Heg was toppled and beheaded during a protest in downtown Madison in June 2020 against police brutality. Protests began a month earlier over the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police and flared up again that June after Madison police arrested a Black activist. Kelsey D. Nelson, 33, was sentenced for...

Germany and Nigeria are set to venture into an agreement to pave way for the return of centuries-old sculptures known as the Benin Bronzes that were taken from Africa in the 19th century and displayed in German museums and elsewhere.Governments and museums in Europe and North America have increasingly sought to resolve ownership disputes over objects looted during colonial times. A British colonial expedition stole the bas-relief Bronzes along with many other treasures in 1897 from the royal palace of the Kingdom of Benin, in what's now southern Nigeria. The Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, an authority that oversees many of...

The transgender daughter of House Minority Whip Katherine Clark, D-Mass, was sentenced to just one year of probation Wednesday after reaching a deal with a Boston court concerning a number of charges she faced stemming from her role in a violent protest in January. Riley Dowell was arrested by Boston police during the protest after allegedly spray-painting a monument and assaulting a police officer. She was ultimately charged with assault and battery on a police officer, vandalizing property, tagging property, vandalizing a historic marker/monument, and resisting arrest. According to local Fox affiliate WFXT, Dowell, who was 23 at the time...

Welsh Government advice says statues of “old white men” such as Trafalgar hero Admiral Nelson may need to be removed or even destroyed to create the “right historical narrative” in an increasingly multicultural society. In its current form, the studiously woke guidance, which should be finalised by the end of March, laments the fact that “powerful, older, able-bodied white men” are often depicted in public statues and memorials and that this may be “offensive” to Britain’s increasingly diverse population, according to The Telegraph.

The bust was modeled from life just before Lincoln’s assassination in April 1865. It was created by American sculptor Vinnie Ream, the first woman to be granted a federal commission by the United States, according to the university’s website. It was purchased and donated to the campus by Ezra Cornell, founder of the university. Its scheduled return to public viewing comes amid concerns over its removal among some Cornell donors and alumni. The public was first alerted of its removal by an article in The College Fix in late June 2022. The Fix was told of the situation by Cornell...

CHICAGO — Two years ago, as the city of Chicago reeled from a bloody battle between police officers and protesters over a prominent statue of Christopher Columbus, Mayor Lori Lightfoot launched an ambitious review of public monuments she said would be “a racial healing and historical reckoning project.” This week, the Chicago Monuments Project finally released its long-delayed report recommending a series of new public memorials across the city and the removal of several statues that the commission flagged for honoring white supremacy or disrespecting Indigenous peoples. Whether Lightfoot will follow the committee’s recommendations remains to be seen, however, as...

- A statue to famed abolitionist David Livingstone was identified as 'problematic.' - The statue was among several monuments highlighted in a Glasgow report. - Glasgow City Council commissioned the report to help it take note of monuments in the Scottish city which has associations with the slave trade. A monument to a famous abolitionist could be removed due to an alleged connection to the slave trade. A statue to David Livingstone, the anti-slavery missionary and explorer, in Glasgow was identified in a 119-page report identifying a series of sites in Glasgow with links to slavery. The monument was...

There’s a problem with putting someone on a pedestal: Exposed on all sides, a hero to some can be seen as a traitor to others. Atlanta plans to install a statue of a Native American man atop a 110-foot (34-meter) column in its new Peace Park, where it will tower over statues of 17 civil rights icons, including the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Developer Rodney Mims Cook Jr. calls Chief Tomochichi “a co-founder of Georgia” who prevented massacres by warmly inviting British Gen. James Oglethorpe to colonize his people’s land in 1733. “They became the closest of friends, initiating...

It would seem that in our day, American history is being dismantled one statue at a time. Just the other week, New York City removed a statue of Theodore Roosevelt. NBC notes: “The bronze sculpture of Roosevelt on horseback with Native American and African figures depicted subjugation and racial inferiority, the American Museum of Natural History said.” A friend remarked, “The idea of erasing Teddy Roosevelt from that specific museum in New York---my goodness, they just made a beloved movie about 15 years ago where Teddy Roosevelt (played by Robin Williams, no less) comes alive at that very museum---is utterly...

Theodore Roosevelt statue removed from American Museum of Natural History A statue of Theodore Roosevelt that has stood in front of the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan for more than 80 years was hauled away Wednesday, photos show. The bronze monument depicting the nation’s 26th president on a horse flanked by an African man and a Native American man — which has sparked protests for glorifying colonialism and racism — was yanked out with a crane just after midnight, leaving behind only its concrete pedestal.

CNN anchor Jake Tapper said Sunday on his show “State of the Union” that the statues of Confederate leaders in Congress are “tributes to traders” that honor political violence like the events of January 6, 2021. Tapper said, “On Thursday night, the one-year anniversary of the attack on the U.S. Capitol, CNN hosted an event at the Capitol to talk about that horrible day.”

The last two years have seen an unprecedented escalation in a decades-long war on the American past. But there are lots of logical flaws in attacking prior generations in U.S. history. Critics assume their own judgmental generation is morally superior to those of the past. So, they use their own standards to condemn the mute dead who supposedly do not measure up to them. Yet 21st-century critics rarely acknowledge their own present affluence and leisure owe much to history's prior generations whose toil helped create their current comfort. And what may future scolds say of the modern generation that saw...

Video