applecorped
Banned
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Inviting? That's a long time to wait to answer an invitation
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Francis Scott Key in Baltimore - vandalized
- Thread starter C_Felix
- Start date
Inviting? That's a long time to wait to answer an invitation
Mike!
Official Ponylandistanian National Treasure. Re
And they didn't even RSVP.
Hlafordlaes
Disorder of Kilopi
Statues, anthems, flags. These are for the children of Potemkin democracy, not democrats, let alone skeptics. Or as Carlin famously said, "symbols are for the symbol-minded." And political hero worship is for those who already accept being less capable by nature, and so is a tacit admission that monarchy is, sigh, truly best. God save Trump!
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Sherkeu
Illuminator
I think the Jews had it right early on commanding no graven images. People get very protective of their preferred idols.
More and more I think every public thing should have a time limit. Every 25 years (one generation), it gets a full review to assess if it still serves an appropriate secular purpose.
Thomas Jefferson realized the future generations need to be able to keep a natural pace with the times without periodic bloody revolts.
Jefferson:
We can ask things like:
Did these presently honored people contribute to our ideals and principles? Did they make a positive impact for their time and culture?
Did they have unforgivable character flaws that outweigh their extraordinary talent... or charity... or genius?
Do we care more about their perceived public image or the real history? (and could anyone be trusted to decide that?)
We need to be careful of how we repackage these legacies so they aren't over corrected to the point of absurdity.
*I live next to the Nixon Library and they did a great job revamping last year, together with the National Archives, of presenting all aspects of his life and general character. Changes are in part due to the interest of tourists in Watergate I'm sure, but it feels more balanced than the expected 'tribute to a great man'. He seems more a real human being and you can see what things he got right and also where his warped loyalty and hubris led him to do seriously short-sighted (unpresidential!) things. (I feel like speaking up during his phone tapes saying "Don't try to fix it! You're making it so much worse!!")
Francis Scott Key won't have that level of interest in his life but it can be done!
More and more I think every public thing should have a time limit. Every 25 years (one generation), it gets a full review to assess if it still serves an appropriate secular purpose.
Thomas Jefferson realized the future generations need to be able to keep a natural pace with the times without periodic bloody revolts.
Jefferson:
We can ask things like:
Did these presently honored people contribute to our ideals and principles? Did they make a positive impact for their time and culture?
Did they have unforgivable character flaws that outweigh their extraordinary talent... or charity... or genius?
Do we care more about their perceived public image or the real history? (and could anyone be trusted to decide that?)
We need to be careful of how we repackage these legacies so they aren't over corrected to the point of absurdity.
*I live next to the Nixon Library and they did a great job revamping last year, together with the National Archives, of presenting all aspects of his life and general character. Changes are in part due to the interest of tourists in Watergate I'm sure, but it feels more balanced than the expected 'tribute to a great man'. He seems more a real human being and you can see what things he got right and also where his warped loyalty and hubris led him to do seriously short-sighted (unpresidential!) things. (I feel like speaking up during his phone tapes saying "Don't try to fix it! You're making it so much worse!!")
Francis Scott Key won't have that level of interest in his life but it can be done!
Foolmewunz
Grammar Resistance Leader, TLA Dictator
Tell that to the jury that acquitted the guy he was trying to lock up.
Like a lot of people from that era, Key was complex. Being a bright young thing of some standing, when he started out in his twenties he got him some status symbols,... his first slaves. He owned seven or so throughout his younger years, but by the 1830s, he'd manumitted them. During that time he was popularly considered a ****** lover.
Whatever. He held slaves. Many people did. He had a change of heart or morals and manumitted them, defended blacks in court when many lawyers wouldn't,.... and then had another change of heart/morals or just political expediency and was adamantly anti-abolitionist.
> owned slaves
> freed slaves
> defended blacks
> prosecuted abolitionists
A lot of contradictions there, but perhaps not so. Maybe, like a lot of liberals today and their stand on Antifa (no, they're going to far), maybe Abolitionism is a line he felt they crossed.
I can't say. Nothing in my brief reading has answered the question.
I'd say he'd be a low level target if I was out there looking for statues to deface.
