439

A Confederate memorial is to be removed from Arlington National Cemetery in northern Virginia in the coming days, part of the push to remove symbols that commemorate the Confederacy from military-related facilities, a cemetery official said Saturday.

The decision ignores a recent demand from more than 40 Republican congressmen that the Pentagon suspend efforts to dismantle and remove the monument from Arlington cemetery.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.world 54 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

The statue, unveiled in 1914, features a bronze woman, crowned with olive leaves, standing on a 32-foot pedestal, and was designed to represent the American South. According to Arlington, the woman holds a laurel wreath, a plow stock and a pruning hook, with a Biblical inscription at her feet that says: “They have beat their swords into plough-shares and their spears into pruning hooks.”

I dunno, it sounds like the old Roman war memorials depicting their defeated enemies submitting to peace.

Edit: I just read the Wikipedia article describing the monument’s design and history. The sculptor was actually working in Rome, so the similarity to Roman monuments may not be accidental. But he was also using the monument to imply that Black slaves supported the Confederate cause, so the memorial’s removal is clearly appropriate.

[-] nyahlathotep@sh.itjust.works 30 points 1 year ago

That does sound more like a monument to their defeat than to the confederacy itself

A shame he stopped where he did. I'm sure that's a coincidence.

Some of the figures also on the statue include a Black woman depicted as “Mammy” holding what is said to be the child of a white officer, and an enslaved man following his owner to war.

[-] nyahlathotep@sh.itjust.works 14 points 1 year ago

Yeah, ok, fuck that. Tear the fucker down

[-] Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone 28 points 1 year ago

Do the next sentence too:

Some of the figures also on the statue include a Black woman depicted as “Mammy” holding what is said to be the child of a white officer, and an enslaved man following his owner to war.

[-] NoSpiritAnimal@lemmy.world 15 points 1 year ago

Yeah if we had treated them the way Rome treated it's conquests or if they had actually beaten their swords into plough shares this might be true.

Back in reality their great-grandchildren are trying to bring about civil war 2.

So no, this is a monument to an imaginary peace held by traitors that should be melted down into a monument to all the slaves who were forced to fight against their own freedom.

Holy selective quotation, Batman!

[-] Socsa@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 year ago

The whole "lost cause" movement is about making it seem as if the Confederates were the "ethical" side, even though they lost. They symbology of the statue is heavily wrapped up in this concept - that even though the Confederacy was defeated, it was just and noble. Which, of course, implies that it would be noble to try again one day.

this post was submitted on 17 Dec 2023
439 points (97.8% liked)

News

23659 readers
3563 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS