But the slippery slope is very steep indeed. NY City officials are reviewing whether to remove monuments to Columbus and U. S. Grant.
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2017/08/22/new-york-city-statue-removal/
The Seattle mayor demanded the removal of Mr. Lenin from that private parking lot in Fremont. Baby kid was really upset - the Lighting of the Lenin ceremony before Christmas is an annual event. I mean… that statute is a curiosity and not a tribute to communism.
Well, I grew up in the South (as if that gives my opinion any additional merit). Many of my ancestors fought for the Confederacy (in NC, 80% of the white population between the ages of 15-49 served in the CSA at some point.) In high school I was taught that the Civil War was fought over “state’s rights” and slavery was rarely mentioned.
The small town in which I grew up has a statue of a Confederate soldier downtown. It was erected in the 1960s.
I say, remove those statues from public places. I think it’s ridiculous that they’re still standing.
Well I mean it does, at least for people like me with no familiarity with the south. I’m happy to hear your opinion as a person knowledgeable and involved, rather than, say imaginary friends or relatives. I have absolutely no familiarity with people with roots in the confederate south, or lived experience in those places. I appreciate your perspective and that of other southerners.
Interesting no? I wonder how the city could get rid of the statue and keep the Columbus Day parade and municipal holiday (did you all know that Columbus Day is a holiday here, complete with school closings?). Probably can’t.
@TatinG Then, IMO, address the slippery ends of the slope and people can decide on a case by case basis. Don’t use it as an excuse for removing none. I’m just not buying that logic.
And I’m perfectly okay with changing the tenor of recognition around Columbus Day or just getting rid of it. Seems like it is basically an excuse for a day off and shopping anyway. In my industry, it was never a day off from work.
Ha. I don’t know how many times I’ve said to kids here on CC: “If your name is Lee, the adcoms will suspect that you’re Asian, even if you don’t mark the box, unless maybe your name is Robert E.Lee.” This guy actually is named Robert Lee. I think it’s silly to do anything about that.
On the monuments, I’m also from the South, and my view is that monuments to leaders like Lee, Jackson, and Davis should be removed from public squares, but I feel differently about the common monuments to the soldiers from a particular county–especially if there are monuments to other war dead there.
But one other point–I often hear that these monuments are symbols of “Southern pride.” I simply note that black Southerners are just as Southern as white Southerners, and I doubt if many of them have feelings of pride when they see those statues. So they are, at best, symbols of white Southern pride, and it’s very reasonable for a city to think they don’t belong in the public eye.
This is what I mean by personal knowledge. I didn’t know this was a thing.
However. You are not a politician who will eventually face the electorate. The Italian American community would blow a gasket, and it’s powerful, particularly within the unions. Not as powerful as the Emerald Society, but powerful.
Here’s an article about this from my home town: http://www.martinsvillebulletin.com/news/remembering-the-past-for-local-residents-confederate-monuments-provide-historic/article_c8ac98f5-631a-5f65-befb-92d8d5c85f03.html
As you can see from the picture, it’s a generic soldier, and not Robert E. Lee, and I think that makes a difference. Also, it’s apparently privately owned, somehow, even though it’s in front of the courthouse. But this kind of monument is very common across the South.
Well, the Irish don’t get St. Patrick’s Day as a national holiday. I’d let them both still host parades if they want. 
By the way, in case anybody is curious, I’m a white Southerner, and I do feel pride when I see a statue of Martin Luther King, Jr. (although I don’t care for the monument here in DC–I don’t think he looks right).
I do get it. And I’ve been exposed to 30+ years of DH’s academic work on symbolism and group identity/behavior. His work was far back in history, but this is the same issue with the swastika, Maltese cross (at a time in my youth, it was a surfer thing, but strenuously criticized,) Confed flag, etc, all the way down to objections to Christmas trees in public spaces.
But where I smh (or want sssurance?) is that people seem to confuse the symbolic gesture of removing these symbols with some true progress. I’m concerned today’s spitfire is just that. Tomorrow, the blinders go back on. We congratulate ourselves and the inequities remain.
It’s been a tough few years for relations in this country. I worry removing them is treating a symptom, not treating the root problem.
Baby steps, yeah. But then what? We wait passively for something to change? Not my problem? (I supported the 99% protests and we’ve forgotten them now?) With statues gone, do we get to play outtasight/outtamind?
Back to ESPN’s Lee.
Thanks for posting that. I really was unfamiliar.
Oh St. Patrick’s Day is a whole other kettle of fish here in NYC. My second least favorite day of the year.
The thing is that the unions actually get Columbus Day as a paid holiday, and the schools are closed. Taking that away would be very ugly for the politicians who consider the union members their constituents.
“Back to ESPN’s Lee.”
What is there to say other than what a dumb move by ESPN. 
How would you treat the root problem (racism, and the public/government honoring of it)?
While removing the statues (those of which are public/government property), or adding signs explaining the meaning of secession and the Confederate States (as stated by those states themselves back then, not history courses that pretended that slavery was not a significant cause), would not by itself solve the problem, it would at least reduce the promotion of the problem.
The mayor of Madison ordered the removal of a grave marker to men who died in a Union prisoner of war camp. That’s desecrating graves to my way of thinking. The descendants of those men should be able to find where they are buried.
Racism among too many of us, everyday stereotyping, to the point we don’t even realize it, even on CC.
Not just some remarks in the past days by some public figure. I rail against this in other threads, too.
I think the problem is big, ucb.
According to the article, the markers in question were installed in 1981 and 1930 (long after the war in which they died), and do not mark specific graves (they are in a section of the cemetery whose location is presumably known).
Thank you for writing this Hunt. I want to give it 1000 likes.