Stealthy removal on UT (Howe: school, university, safe)

[Trainwreck20]

Good way to avoid a ruckus

University of Texas President Greg Fenves ordered the immediate removal of statues of Robert E. Lee and other prominent Confederate figures from a main area of campus, saying such monuments have become "symbols of modern white supremacy and neo-Nazism."

Fenves announced the move late Sunday night as crews were in place to begin taking the statues down. The school also blocked off the area during the process, and the statues are expected to be gone by mid-morning Monday, a spokesman said.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/universit...053001847.html

[centralaustinite]

I saw this last night and I am so happy! Those statues made me feel so unwelcome when I arrived at UT for grad school 25+ years ago.

[Trainwreck20]

Originally Posted by centralaustinite

I saw this last night and I am so happy! Those statues made me feel so unwelcome when I arrived at UT for grad school 25+ years ago.

I have to admit that I was not socially aware enough at 18 to really worry THAT much about them from a racial perspective and what impact they may have on an individual; however, it did seem odd to have a bunch of statues that (even then) seemed to symbolize slavery.

[CarnivalGal]

Gee, it only took them how many hundreds of years to realize they may have been a little racially insensitive? How progressive of them.

There's still a big, fat Confederate monument on the capitol grounds.

[Trainwreck20]

Originally Posted by CarnivalGal

Gee, it only took them how many hundreds of years to realize they may have been a little racially insensitive? How progressive of them.

They were installed in 1933, so 0.84 hundreds of years?

[Mr. Clutch]

Originally Posted by centralaustinite

I saw this last night and I am so happy! Those statues made me feel so unwelcome when I arrived at UT for grad school 25+ years ago.

I remember them well from when I started grad school there too 10 or so years ago. Glad to see UT finally saw the light. It was pretty odd to see them there given the school's progressive reputation.

[CarnivalGal]

Originally Posted by Trainwreck20

They were installed in 1933, so 0.84 hundreds of years?

Oh, I'm sorry. 84 years is much better.

[Trainwreck20]

Originally Posted by CarnivalGal

Oh, I'm sorry. 84 years is much better.

Just trying to be more accurate.

There probably ARE some people that think that the confederate war statues have been around for several hundred years or more .

[ITO]

"Do you realize that the past, starting from yesterday, has been actually abolished? If it survives anywhere, it's in a few solid objects with no words attached to them, like that lump of glass there. Already we know almost literally nothing about the Revolution and the years before the Revolution. Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book has been rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street and building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And that process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right. I know, of course, that the past is falsified, but it would never be possible for me to prove it, even when I did the falsification myself. After the thing is done, no evidence ever remains. The only evidence is inside my own mind, and I don't know with any certainty that any other human being shares my memories. Just in that one instance, in my whole life, I did possess actual concrete evidence after the event – years after it." - 1984 by George Orwell

The problem with abolishing history is that we lose it. A much better solution would have been to put up a plaque explaining the history, and adding context. Or better yet put statues of civil rights or even Union heroes near by to add context, to add conversation and balance.

However, we have become a society of babies where peoples feelings take precedent over history, over the conversation and over common sense.

History is not supposed to make you feel safe or comfortable, and if you remove it then you are not better than book burners. Orwell nailed it, and when the policial winds change again, and they will, I wonder what other parts of history we will lose.

[TexasHorseLady]

Originally Posted by ITO

"Do you realize that the past, starting from yesterday, has been actually abolished? If it survives anywhere, it's in a few solid objects with no words attached to them, like that lump of glass there. Already we know almost literally nothing about the Revolution and the years before the Revolution. Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book has been rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street and building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And that process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right. I know, of course, that the past is falsified, but it would never be possible for me to prove it, even when I did the falsification myself. After the thing is done, no evidence ever remains. The only evidence is inside my own mind, and I don't know with any certainty that any other human being shares my memories. Just in that one instance, in my whole life, I did possess actual concrete evidence after the event – years after it." - 1984 by George Orwell

The problem with abolishing history is that we lose it. A much better solution would have been to put up a plaque explaining the history, and adding context. Or better yet put statues of civil rights or even Union heroes near by to add context, to add conversation and balance.

However, we have become a society of babies where peoples feelings take precedent over history, over the conversation and over common sense.

History is not supposed to make you feel safe or comfortable, and if you remove it then you are not better than book burners. Orwell nailed it, and when the policial winds change again, and they will, I wonder what other parts of history we will lose.

Thank you, I was just about to post that quote. Interesting who it is that it starting the process of bringing 1984 to fruition.

And, yes, once you have decided that certain citizens' rights and history can be jettisoned because they make you uncomfortable, you have decided that when, not if, the same comes for you, you can say nothing about it because you have made it quite clear it is fine and dandy to do.

I couldn't care less about the statues. I DO care about precedents set. And I have not been able to find anywhere in the Constitution a guarantee of the right not to be offended.