Fus Ro Dah
Did Lincoln actually own slaves?
No he was poor as dirt and from a Free State.
Ya, that’s what I thought.
I’d say the parents of those protesting students are due a sizeable refund from the University of Wisconsin-Madison as obviously the school has failed to teach them even a basic understanding of Civil War era and Presidential history.
And I agree with Mr. Groceries regarding the actress who wants to dress as a demon for Halloween. Have the people crying racism actually ever met an African-American person? I’m offended that someone would even consider that picture a comparison in any way. What the hell?
That’s more like High School. I was never required to take History class for my degree. My general ed courses fell was Biology, Oceanography, Terrorism (PS), and some writing and one giant class I kind of forget what it was. There is no African American, Women Studies or History requirement for all degrees.
My mother has two daughters that went to college, hopefully a third soon. She keeps telling me how great the classes were that my sister took, and she doesn’t remember I didn’t take them. heh.
Yea, I think for most college students, unless they use a history class as an elective, high school is where they learn it.
They are actually protesting Lincoln’s treatment of Native Americans. The slavery accusation comes from a random protestor, who is quoted but not even identified. It’s rather disingenuous to use it to explain what the protest is about.
Very true. I’ve long thought that a mandatory class for incoming freshmen should be “how not to be an idiot.”
Where he pardoned all of them but the suspected murderers and rapists?
Thirty-eight Native Americans were executed in one day, the largest mass execution in America’s history.
Lincoln might have thought this was justified, but people who support the death penalty usually do. That doesn’t mean it is free of controversy.
It’s also in marked contrast to his treatment of Confederates, who after all were guilty of capital treason and murder.
Finally, despite what your link implies the protestors did not want the statue taken down. They wanted a plaque put nearby to also recognize Lincoln’s role in the executions.
Sure, but it was going to be like 300.
And it’s not like he had much time to deal with Confederate leaders since he was dead before the war even ended.
I mean sure he could’ve come back from the dead and demanded harsher punishments, but at the end of the day he wasn’t actually Jesus, just a man.
As you must know, Lincoln had started the process pardoning captured Confederate soldiers and reintegrating the South long before the war ended.
Anyway, you think that a statue of Lincoln should ignore his questionable decisions because he was just a man, and the students think it should highlight them because he wasn’t a saint. It’s a reasonable debate.
On the one hand, this has got to be right-wing trolling, right?
OTOH, mother of god undergrads are…well…they’re something.
I guess my ultimate reaction is, “Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.”
“Sure he freed the slaves and saved the Republic, but he wasn’t perfect so we should totally destroy all memory of him.”
On no planet is that a “reasonable debate.”
Except for maybe in grade school, I didn’t think anyone really portrays any of our great leaders as perfect any more. So I guess the question is really what disqualifies someone from being honored by a statue. It can’t be lack of perfection or the ability to portray today’ morales perfectly in the yester years.
Don’t we usually have plaques with factual information near these things, or in a museum nearby? If we have in depth history nearby, I don’t see why adding this event would hurt.
Nobody wants to destroy any memories, or anything taken down.
They want a new plaque planted near the statue. The only thing it can destroy is illusions.
We cannot ignore the practical concerns of how to deal with a huge insurgent population after a civil war.
I mean, you can’t just execute half the country, or punish them all. Such a choice means that you can never end the civil war until they are literally all dead.
Well, the executed Dakotas were part of a Native American rebellion. And the solution there was pretty close to killing or evicting them all. So yeah, you can make genocide work if you want to.