Posted on 04/01/2018 9:05:49 AM PDT by Simon Green
Over the decades, this quiet coastal hamlet has earned a reputation as one of the most liberal places in the nation. Arcata was the first U.S. city to ban the sale of genetically modified foods, the first to elect a majority Green Party city council and one of the first to tacitly allow marijuana farming before pot was legal.
Now it's on the verge of another first.
No other city has taken down a monument to a president for his misdeeds. But Arcata is poised to do just that. The target is an 8½-foot bronze likeness of William McKinley, who was president at the turn of the last century and stands accused of directing the slaughter of Native peoples in the U.S. and abroad.
"Put a rope around its neck and pull it down," Chris Peters shouted at a recent rally held at the statue, which has adorned the central square for more than a century.
Peters, who heads the Arcata-based Seventh Generation Fund for Indigenous People, called McKinley a proponent of "settler colonialism" that "savaged, raped and killed."
A presidential statue would be the most significant casualty in an emerging movement to remove monuments honoring people who helped lead what Native groups describe as a centuries-long war against their very existence.
The push follows the rapid fall of Confederate memorials across the South in a victory for activists who view them as celebrating slavery. In the nearly eight months since white supremacists marched in central Virginia to protest the removal of a Robert E. Lee statue, cities across the country have yanked dozens of Confederate monuments. Black politicians and activists have been among the strongest supporters of the removals.
This time, it's tribal activists taking charge, and it's the West and California in particular leading the way.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Awfully early to be drinking so heavily, isn’t it?
I’m attempting to chip away at the ignorance and the myths regarding both the historical institution of bondage as well as the Union’s rationale for going to war against the seceding states. These go to base assumptions in popular culture as well as what is by now quite frankly indoctrination in schools and universities. Thus far, these have proved remarkably resistant to documented facts but it’s a worthwhile endeavor. You pursue the matter in your manner, I’ll pursue it in mine.
Buy a plot of land and put up all the Confederate bs you want. My ancestor fought the treasonous bastards.
That 150 year old veneer of bullshit has finally worn off and revealed the truth about why the north did what it did. Deal with it. Your fantasy doesn’t sell anymore.
Monuments to your ancestor and the cause for which he fought will be next, so clear a spot on your own land or go buy a plot yourself.
You’re absolutely correct - the BS has worn thin. The Slaver’s rebellion was one of the stupidest stunts in human history. The confeds are solely responsible for those 750,000 deaths. Lost Cause Losers won’t admit it - which is fine by me because it reveals them for the idiots they are.
My ancestor fought to preserve the union and end slavery you moron.
Confederate soldiers were fighting to defend their homes and families. What on earth were the northern soldiers fighting for?
Your ancestor is a dead white male who fought for the oppressive oligarchy and his day is coming, too, you moron. Slavery continued on after the end of the Civil War.
You do love your little slogans don’t you? Such a good, unquestioning leftist.
You need to read history and get a grip bozo.
And you just love your insults.
I’ll wager you haven’t bothered to read much of this thread. Your ancestor means nothing to those who are erasing history, he’s just a bump in the road, a dead white male bump in the road and he’ll be erased, too, bozo.
Are you willing to admit that you were full of it when you claimed stating “Grant was a drunk” was “Lost Causer drivel?” I think you’re full of it.
No because it stands as lost causer drivel.
Ah, so you have your little slogan for truths that you dislike because they’re inconvenient and do not serve to support your beliefs. Now, where have I encountered that before? Oh, that’s right. Leftists.
Boy, irony’ s lost on you, huh?
No, not lost upon me at all, but it is upon the humorless authoritarians erasing US history right and left. You do realize just how many former Union officers and military were involved in the “Indian problem” of the west, I suppose. Revisit the topic of the thread.
Don't you mean he fought to FORCIBLY preserve the union? The South had enough of the "union" to the extent that they left to chart their OWN future. Why should this have mattered to your ancestor? He didn't live in the South at the time so it should not have impacted him in any way. What gave your ancestor the right to deny others their chosen path? He didn't care about slavery because it was legal at the time of secession. The truth is that your ancestor was ordered to fight on behalf of rich financiers in New York and Boston so they didn't have to risk their lives continuing the take advantage of the South charade and he was stupid enough to do so.
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