A new tradition?
Jun. 24th, 2020 12:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
garoteA lot of monuments to Civil War figures were put up well after the war ended as an attempt to claim public spaces for white supremacists. These are people whose only claim to fame is as representatives of the antebellum south. In their case I fully support tearing their statues the heck down.
But here's another suggestion: We could make it a tradition to get all our farmer's market produce that looks too gross to sell, and bring it to the square every week, and pelt the monument with it, to constantly renew our contempt for them. It could be a scheduled thing, with food stalls and music, and lots of explanatory plaques for why we do this.
Fun for the whole family! And better than whitewashing history, I think.
But here's another suggestion: We could make it a tradition to get all our farmer's market produce that looks too gross to sell, and bring it to the square every week, and pelt the monument with it, to constantly renew our contempt for them. It could be a scheduled thing, with food stalls and music, and lots of explanatory plaques for why we do this.
Fun for the whole family! And better than whitewashing history, I think.
Yes ...
Date: 2025-06-20 08:15 pm (UTC)I'm also heartily in favor of selling them. Let the fans buy the thing and display it in their yard or private museum. Use the proceeds to put up more diverse public art.
Re: Yes ...
Date: 2025-06-20 10:18 pm (UTC)Re: Yes ...
Date: 2025-06-21 09:36 am (UTC)Typically a person of color making a statue of same.
>> Though I would miss throwing vegetables at them... <<
No reason an African-American museum couldn't put one in the back yard for that purpose. ;)
no subject
Date: 2025-06-20 08:21 pm (UTC)I live in South Carolina; all I see from that era is a huge Confederate flag on a house somewhere in the woods - that's it. Or do I miss something. (Ok, I'm not hanging any flag this 7/4, for an obvious reason).
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Date: 2025-06-20 10:33 pm (UTC)What's especially interesting to me about the current debate, is the idea that people can revere a historical figure for one thing, and then other people can object to that historical figure for a different thing, and the two groups will fight because they believe the monument actually represents different ideas.
Like, there's no question that George Washington owned slaves. But he is generally remembered - and there are monuments all over the place to him - for his crucial role in preventing America from becoming another monarchy. The monuments (and the books, high school courses, etc) are there as an endorsement of the freedom from the rule of kings.
But if you believe the key trait that makes George Washington memorable is his slave ownership, then you interpret all those monuments as an endorsement of slavery.
In particular, what interests me here is, what about the movement itself, to change public opinion about what the important thing about Washington should be? Making George Washington - the figure - a representative of slavery, when he generally isn't to the vast majority of Americans (and the world)... Is that actually progress in the fight against racism? Or is it more like ... diluting and trivializing it?
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Date: 2025-06-20 10:47 pm (UTC)The "evidence" for this was a link to a strident editorial on a Bay Area news site that took multiple quotes from Jack London's essays out of context and then cynically re-interpreted them.
The argument on Nextdoor went on for something like 200 messages, and broke down like mainly along the lines you would expect, with people who only vaguely knew who Jack London was saying "Yeah! Screw that racist bastard!" and people who have read his essays saying "Um, go read what he actually wrote and did, please."
I wrote a lot more about it here ... https://mile42.net/2020/06/fast-food-and-casinos/
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Date: 2025-06-21 03:20 am (UTC)And thanks for the link! "Grupm from Pahrump"! I love it. It's a little bit crazy place, of course. Area 51, etc. Prostitution, etc. And good food (to my taste). We were towed there once, from Death Valley, in the middle of the night. It was an adventure, when we got stuck in D.V. with three flat tires.
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Date: 2025-06-21 04:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-06-21 01:38 pm (UTC)First time: Death Valley, an unpaved road (that is, sharp rocks). I had a Ford Ranger, which is, basically, a toy pickup truck, with tires that are no good for a truck - but they install them to improve the mileage (14 for decent tires to 17 for toy tires).
We got stuck there; walked for five miles to a ranger station (it was April); walked back; waited for half a day for a tow truck to arrive; walked again, in the dark, and I called again; then walked back again. Around 10pm the tow truck arrived, and first took us to Pahrump, to spend a night there, and the next morning it tooks us to Vegas (where we did not plan to be); it was a surprise, first time in Vegas.
Second time: From hwy 5, we took a dirt road at Castle Crags, to get to hwy 3 - just as an entertaimnent. Same truck, same kind of tires, but we had that glew that you are supposed to pump into the tires. 17 miles into the woods, we got three flat tires again. The glue did not help without a pump (I didn't have a pump). There was a bum camp nearbuy; these guys (lads, dudes) were digging for platinum. One guy (just one!), called Gay, had a pump. He did pump our tires and told us to rush back. We did. Within a mile, another "kaboom", and we had a flat again. So we had to walk, into the night, 17 miles. Yes, I tried to call, from the top of the road, but no connection. We came over to the gas station (hoping for a hot coffee). Closed. But there was a phone. So I called AAA, and eventually a guy from Dunsmuir arrived, in a tow truck, and took us to Dunsmuir, and we even had some time to sleep in a hotel there. The shop charged me something like $20 or $40 for the repairs. (So, by Christmas, I had sent them a box of champagne).
Pretty soon I, first, replaced the tires; and, second, sold the pickup. It was a classical F.O.R.D., I was told by my friends.
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Date: 2025-06-21 07:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-06-21 08:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-06-21 04:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-06-21 08:04 am (UTC)What the fucking fuck did Portlandians have against US Fucking Grant?!
(Pardon my language but I am mightily exercised by this revelation.)
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Date: 2025-06-21 01:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-06-21 04:40 am (UTC)And the “proto-trust-fund-kid” thing is interesting for me because, one of the least-discussed aspects of Walden that struck me when I first read it in my early 20s, is the way he sets out to create a sort of blueprint for how to deliberately live within limited means so that you will be free to spend your time as you please. He spends pages describing in detail how to stick to a budget and keep your needs and desires modest! Not very poetic, but if there is anything in that book that clearly changed my life for the better, it is that!
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Date: 2025-06-21 08:37 am (UTC)At the time, the respectable printed publications I read - newspapers and magazines - seemed more interested in positivity. In extolling and interviewing good events and people. In trying to uncover a brighter future where we might more successfully manage our global problems.
Is that just me wearing rose-tinted glasses as I gaze into the past? Why do I have this feeling like, back then it was easier to find optimism in the written word, and nowadays the default is either some kind of stress-inducing poison, or the verbal equivalent of junk food?
I avoid all social media and for the most part I avoid news apps. I'm instantly skeptical of anything that isn't straight from the Associated Press. The idea of relying on corporate-owned large language models to "summarize" news completely horrifies me. I still feel like most of what reaches me is poison. What the hell can I do?
I tend to fill my reading time with ancient history, cozy mystery novels, BBC panel shows, and contemporary science writing, with occasional podcasts thrown in. Here's a rolling list of things I put 'on deck' for my nephews. Put another way, I tend to be almost completely disconnected from contemporary events. What happened?!