(06-24-2020 01:26 PM)Tribal Wrote:  Precision is key. They need to lay out one statue and one building. Get the ball rolling.

In my view, any activity prior to 1865 gets a pass. Many, like some of my Irish ancestors, were literally forced to war off the boat. Learn about the Draft Act of 1863, how the rich could buy their way out of it for $200, and how immigrants were handed a gun off the boat to make the numbers. Or the teenage boys who were forced to fight for the Confederacy. Think they had much choice? Should we condemn them 157 years and 6 generations later?

Sen Byrd was grand puba of the KKK and he was given a hero's burial by the same people banging the drum to have 200 yo statues torn down.

Or calling to fire Ralph Northam bc he dressed in blackface for a party 30 years ago.

Folks, we can't CANCEL everyone. Is it at all possible to consider mitigating evil with time? At what point do we moveon.org?

I agree that each figure should be viewed independently and in the context of their time. I therefore think Thomas Jefferson gets a pass, along with others from that era. I strongly disagree with your assertion that Civil War figures get a pass. Sure, like in any war, you feel sorry for the foot soldiers that don’t get to question the cause and go and do what they’re told. But, these are not the folks for which monuments are erected either. Nope, the folks who have monuments erected were the true believers, the leaders of their movements, the ones who could have walked away or been on the right side of history. Lee chose to fight with the Confederacy. He attended West Point, he could have joined the Union army or sat the war out. He and the other wealthy, landed Confederate Generals chose to fight to preserve slavery in the US of A long after much of the world and half of this country recognized it for the evil it was. They don’t get a pass and they don’t deserve statues and monuments in public spaces of honor.