Benjamin Franklin

How is removing a statue sanitizing history? Lee did whatever he did. The question is whether, and how much, you celebrate him through the modern lens.

The rise of Trump and the rise of this current alt right parallel each other. Definitely not causal.

A Lee statue is not a monument to slavery. But it's a monument to the leader of the group of states that fought to keep it. I'm not particularly against it. It can certainly see why people would be. Why celebrate that guy? Paternity and OJ are convicted of no crimes or at least in oJ's case no crime beyond theft. The question is: Do we need to pay tribute to these people? I'd say no, but I also wouldn't go protest or pull down a monument to them.

Of course time can make demons of people celebrated in their day. That phenomenon predates our era by, mmm, pretty much forever.

What do you think will be happening over the next 3 years? Better range, better accuracy, increasing destructive potential. I will watch the US-China pressure with interest.

The ratio of peaceful protest coverage to clash-protest coverage is wildly skewed. To say otherwise would be absurd.

No one is erasing it. But some question whether there should be public tribute to some of the historical figures. In the sporting world, removing OJ and the Paterno statue at Penn State parallel the discussion. OJ will always be the first guy to rush for 2000 yards. But do we need to have a public monument to him? Paterno won a bazillion games. But he at best turned a blind eye to a serial child rapist. Should he have a statue erected in his honor? Just framing the issue.

Find the truth in listening. There never was an unbiased media. The 50s were not a life of Theodore Cleaver. These are all just stories we say.

Peaceful rally in Philly didn't get covered yesterday. It's not a left/right coverage thing. Peace just doesn't sell. Who wants to see a thousand people having a moment of silence?

My post you responded to was about the Charlottesville statue. What happened in Raleigh was criminal vandalism. They should go to jail.

You voted for Trump ergo Trump ilk.

Everytime you talk to Gator, I may glance at what he wrote. Decided to read that linked story. Yeah Gator: That's really great that a bunch of people broke the law and smashed public property. Bravo indeed. What do you think the reaction to violence is? To keep a theme going, anyone, anyone?

How's your lawn jockey working out? It's not how it starts. Taking down statues happens sometimes for historical offensiveness, sometimes for other reasons. It doesn't mean that we're 3 years from prison camps. Don't go all sky-is-falling histrionic. This is a small statue in the corner of a small college town. Lee comes down. Paterno stays. The Yin and Yang is still in balance.

King and his movement made use of people and accomplished something. No cop or firehouse needed to attack a peaceable protestor.

I get that. The peaceable protesters, of which their were plenty, should distance themselves from the thugs. King's message was louder and clearer than anything these people can hope to accomplish.

I have a hard time calling the current batch of white supremacists "facist." Only because they aren't well-informed enough to own a philosophy. It seems like they mash up the symbols of the Nazis and Confederacy as the packaging for simple racism. Guys like Spencer, and to a lesser extent Brietbart, have given the white supremacists a vocabulary ("alt-right") that sounds almost reasonable in print. But you don't have to pull back many layers to find the racial hate.

I just tried reading what anifa was. I still don't know. The best I can gather is they gather to meet the violence of racist groups with violence. Is that right?

Did you get smashed in the chest all day during the healing process?

Agreed. the summary and comments seem to indicate a line of thinking like "a pox on the alt-right and BLM" houses. Is that what the beard-guy said?

Forced? How so?

What are your thoughts about the white supremacist protestors? Not their rights to protest but their values?

I don't really care who decides. Clearly the future does. This Lee statue thing is not about Lee: It's about the white supremacists who showed up. Somehow a bunch of people here have turned this into, "It's the left's fault for creating them/inviting them/something." I could give two spits about whether they keep the statue or not. They have some local council for that decision. (And if you're going to judge a founding father as morally wanting, I'm down the list. Jefferson is the easy target.)

Of course this is about Obama and SJWs. I knew it! How are you guys missing Hillary? PPP fail.

I did say exactly that.