Free Republic

MUSKOGEE, Okla. — Muskogee's catholic community is in shock after its only church in the city was left picking up the pieces of a cherished relic all but destroyed by vandals. Leaders of St. Joseph Catholic Church said a five-foot-tall plaster statue of the Virgin Mary and one of the Holy Family were adored by generations of members. "The one of Holy Mother, the one that was pretty well pulverized in the parking lot, that has a history that dates all the way back to 1893," church manager Lucille Ferguson told 2 News. Father Robert Matthew Dye said he knows...

These physical markers of our shared past help to bind us together, gluing us to history and the promise of future generations.The left’s jihad against statues and public memorials has finally hit a roadblock. After removing statues of Gen. Robert E. Lee, President Theodore Roosevelt, Christopher Columbus, and the Confederate Memorial at Arlington, a New York Times columnist even suggested that the father of our country be ripped off like a filthy Band-Aid and tossed. But it was the founder of Pennsylvania, William Penn, who resisted and won.The National Park Service planned to remove Penn’s statue in Philadelphia’s Welcome Park...

It’s time to stop debating history and facts with people who only care about the exercise of raw political power.div class="article-content"> The news that the Biden administration planned to remove a statue of William Penn in a federal park in Philadelphia that commemorates the founding of Pennsylvania, and that the purpose of the removal was to “provide a more welcoming, accurate, and inclusive experience for visitors,” should at this point not come as a surprise.Once the removals and destruction of Confederate statues and memorials began a few years ago, it was inevitable that all historical figures from America’s past, even...

Joe Biden's National Park Service under Interior Secretary Deb Haaland will remove the statue of William Penn from the park erected in 1982 to commemorate the 300th anniversary of his founding of the colony of Pennsylvania. The park is on the site of his original home in Philadelphia. The park, located in Philadelphia near the Delaware River at Sansom and Second Streets, will be "rehabilitated" and that proposal will include an "expanded interpretation of the Native American history of Philadelphia." The plan was "developed in consultations with the representatives of the indigenous nations of the Haudenosaunee, the Delaware Nation, Delaware...

The newly elected Democrat mayor of Jacksonville, Florida, celebrated the removal of a Confederate statue in the city, which was officially gone before noon Wednesday. Democrat Mayor Donna Deegan, who won her mayoral bid in May, celebrated the removal of the statue in Springfield Park, formally known as Confederate Park. The monument in question, “In Memory of Our Women of the Southland,” depicts a mother with her two children at her side, looking down at a book upon her lap. It was erected in October 1915. The Democrat mayor, who said during her time on the campaign trail that she...

Consensus at meeting: Remove Stephen Foster statue Among the more two dozen people who spoke Wednesday evening before the city’s Art Commission Wednesday, most wanted the Stephen Foster statue along the Oakland stretch of Forbes Avenue to be taken down or moved somewhere less visible. But few speakers were as hostile as Billy Hileman. “You should melt the metal part down and recoup a little bit of [money],” said the educator and veteran activist during the hour-long hearing. “And then maybe make gravel out of the pedestal.” That drew laughter from a crowd of more than 60, but Mr. Hileman...

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...

A White House fence was vandalized Saturday night with red paint as pro-Palestinian protesters shook the gate to one entrance to the executive mansion as some chanted "F--k Joe Biden," the New York Post reported. The demonstrators also covered the General Marquis de Lafayette Statue in nearby Lafayette Park with graffiti and Palestinian flags, according to social media posts. The protesters were rallying against the Biden administration's support of Israel in the war against Hamas. Some outside the White House were heard chanting "F--k Joe Biden." Demonstrators also canted "Free, free Palestine!" and "Cease-fire now!" The U.S. Secret Service said...

A Black Lives Matter activist, who was instrumental in organising the infamous protest that saw the statue of Sir Edward Colston torn down and thrown in the Bristol Harbour, has been jailed for fraud after using donations intended for a children’s charity on herself. Xahra Saleem, born Yvonne Maina, a founding member of the BLM offshoot All Black Lives Bristol activist group, has been jailed for two and a half years after being found guilty of stealing £32,344 in charitable donations to a local children’s group, Changing Your Mindset, which had planned to use the money to fund a trip...

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...

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...

The Moscow-installed authorities of the port city of Mariupol, which fell to Russian forces after a devastating siege earlier in the year, took down a monument to Ukrainian victims of Stalin's famine on Wednesday. Kyiv has been calling the 1930s man-made hunger under Josef Stalin a "genocide," while Moscow has been downplaying it as an episode of famine all over the Soviet Union. The state-run RIA Novosti news agency published a video of a truck uprooting the monument in Mariupol. "We are not taking out a memorial, we are getting rid of a symbol of the political disinformation of the...

After years of Russiagate conspiracy theories about how the Russians had somehow rigged the 2016 presidential election using Facebook ads, the Senate Intelligence report awkwardly revealed that the Russian operation had focused most of its attention on black nationalists. The Senate report revealed that "most of the videos" put out by the Russian IRA troll factory on YouTube "pertained to police brutality and the activist efforts of the Black Lives Matter organization" and found that "no single group of Americans was targeted... more than African-Americans" around "race and related issues". But that was an understatement. The Russians had created their...

...Somehow, despite the accusations and criticisms from some of the most credible people in the race grievance industry, King has continued to raise money. It appears he’s used that money to make some very important purchases in the fight against racial injustice. Among those purchases is a $40,000 dog, a Mastiff for his family they named Marz. King’s PAC, Grassroots Law, has handed over the sum in a pair of payments to Potrero Performance Dogs in California since December, the Washington Free Beacon reported. The PAC paid Protero $10,000 in December, followed by a $30,650 payment in February. Days after...

When she was arrested in Afghanistan last month, Aafia Siddique allegedly had in her possession maps of New York, a list of potential targets that included the Statue of Liberty, Times Square, the subway system and the animal disease center on Plum Island, detailed chemical, biological and radiological weapon information that has been seen only in a handful of terrorist cases, as well as a thumb drive packed with emails, ABC News has learned.

Absolutely arrogant. For Timothy P. Schmalz, an Ontario-based sculptor, that’s really the only way to describe the renewed push to tear down statues that commemorate people who are now deemed out of step with modern morals. When a Confederate figure gets toppled in the U.S., or a prime minister who was part of brutal treatment of Indigenous people is destroyed in Canada, it says more than just disagreeing, Mr. Schmalz said. It’s a claim that we would have known better, acted otherwise. And that’s the hubris. “When one destroys or puts a Confederate statue in a museum, out of sight,...

statue of Abraham Lincoln was vandalized in San Francisco as a school district committee pushes for the renaming of Lincoln High School and others, authorities said. Deputies responded to a call about the incident at 12:55 p.m. Saturday, the San Francisco Sheriff’s Department told McClatchy News in an email. The suspect had fled before deputies arrived, according to the department. The statue has been restored and deputies are still investigating. A photo shows the statue’s face painted red along with the engraved name at its base. Christopher Beale, a journalist based in San Francisco, posted the photo along with a...

A 115-year-old Confederate monument that was the subject of protests in Alabama this year was removed from outside a county courthouse early Friday. News outlets reported that a small group of onlookers cheered at the Madison County Courthouse in Huntsville as crews took away the stone memorial, which was topped by the likeness of a soldier, in pieces. Music blasted during part of the work. “I’m speechless, literally speechless. It’s an amazing time for our culture and for people of all colors. I’m excited that I’m able to watch this event happen during this time,” said Joretha Wright. […] Madison...

A Virgin Mary statue was set ablaze outside a Boston church Saturday night, said police who are investigating the arson incident. Officers at 10 p.m. responded to a call for a fire in the area of 284 Bowdoin St. in Dorchester. On arrival at Saint Peter’s Parish, officers saw that a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary had been set on fire. A suspect had lit plastic flowers on fire, which were in the hands of the Virgin Mary statue, according to members of the Boston Fire Department Fire Investigation Unit. That caused the statue’s face and upper body to...