It's going to a private cemetary where it makes more sense. It's not being destroyed. Putting something that controversial in front of what's supposed to be a neutral courthouse just sends the wrong message.
I can understand why the Lightning are involved. Vinik is trying to remake downtown in his image and attract the sort of people who aren't exactly enthused about Confederate monuments.
The Bucs have a lot of black athletes and fans so I guess that explains that.
The Rays? I don't know, but they were the first to speak out. They're on the St. Pete side of the bay which tends to skew more liberal so I guess it's good outreach in their case.
Also let's not kid ourselves about why this particular statue was placed there at least:
It certainly wasn't just to recognize a historical event.
I do agree with preserving history though. I don't think these monuments should be destroyed. They just need to be placed in the right context. How can you not feel some bias against you as a person of color entering the courthouse if you have to walk past a statue like that? It's the same thing with the folks wanting to put the Ten Commandments outside of courthouses as well.
Idk if you could call it re-writing history. Most of the 'Lost Cause' narrative was developed after Reconstruction.
Ironically this can be seen as an issue of small government (call it "city's rights!"). Why force cities to have monuments glorifying things they don't want glorified? In North Carolina the state legislature has not allowed local governments to have autonomy in this issue and decide for themselves. If the people in Tampa Bay don't want it (I'd guess many there don't), then why have it?
Sell the statues and make some money for the city, or put them in a museum which puts them in the correct historical context. Apologies if this is too off-topic.
Today's youth doesn't go around reading the dedication plaques on statues either, historical monuments are more or less decorations. However they should not be honoring disgucsting human beings who lead armed insurrections against the United States government in the name of being able to own other human beings.
I don't necessarily have a problem with this specific action, but do you think whoever is doing this will stop here? Don't kid yourself. Washington, Jefferson, Madison - America's Founding Fathers- are all next.
I don't necessarily have a problem with this specific action, but do you think whoever is doing this will stop here? Don't kid yourself. Washington, Jefferson, Madison - America's Founding Fathers- are all next.
Why wouldn't they? The move to take down statues and monuments is based on a specific time in this country's history and deals with a specific context of the country's past. What specifically do Jefferson or Washington or Madison have to do with the Confederacy that would make them to target of the same ire?
Only if you have absolutely no friggin' clue what Orwell believed in, sure.
I don't necessarily have a problem with this specific action, but do you think whoever is doing this will stop here? Don't kid yourself. Washington, Jefferson, Madison - America's Founding Fathers- are all next.
They were slaveholders.
I don't necessarily have a problem with this specific action, but do you think whoever is doing this will stop here? Don't kid yourself. Washington, Jefferson, Madison - America's Founding Fathers- are all next.
They were slaveholders.
Some of the idiots are already calling for it.
We live in interesting times.
Conflating the founders of the Country who happened to be slaveholders almost 100 years prior to people who fought to maintain slavery is dishonest on every level. They are two completely different things. The false equivalency is pathetic. People call for lots of things, that doesn't mean it happens or that most would ever take them seriously.
Considering the posted declaration that went along with this statue when it went up, it would be ridiculous if businesses didn't support it's removal.
What is going on is nothing but a censorship play. If one can't see the slippery slope in this mass removal of statues at one time and the removal of many websites by monopolistic internet concerns, then one is either blind or an authoritarian/fascist at heart.
Nothing slippery about it. Many, perhaps most, of these edifices were erected at a point in time at which the civil rights moment was at its most prominent. Given that, they probably never should have been erected at all in prominent public places as they were clearly built to antagonize a segment of the population...served as symbols of an oppressive system at the time.
Business-wise, this is obviously a wise move, as the team will be viewed as more thoughtful and considerate of what is becoming an increasingly larger market in the US and hopefully NHL hockey. Engaging them will become more important with each passing year.
Jeez, why is this post even allowed on Hfboards? Has every single American so lost their minds because of American Partisan Politics that they cant talk of anything else? Even of Hockey, without trying to turn it into an idiotic partisan political debate?
Whatever, private funding for removing a statue. How is that IN ANY WAY Hockey Business related?
Please, I beg you Mods. Nuke this thread (and others like it) because I wont tolerate seeing another part of the internet I like turn into an endless Republican / Democrat Flame War.