American Iconoclasm: a few links and comments about the American Statuary Removal frenzy

What is is about mobs that is so eerie? 

So unsettling? 

So dangerous? 

After Vatican II, many in the Western Church seemed to be taken possession of by demons of Hell's Iconoclasm Department of the Lowerarchy. But iconoclasm can take many forms, in many fields. 

And now...well, thanks to ESPN's removal (technically he was exchanged for another) of a sportscaster named "Robert Lee" (an Asian American; "Lee" or more correctly "Li" is a very common family name in China and Chinese cultural lands) the issue of America's self-identity is hot as ever in the US, only not with religion, but with politics.

So, a few links and comments on this latest political development: 

Back on August 20, my friend Mike Finn wrote about a protest in Columbus. Mike wrote:

Demonstration in Columbus, Ohio today.  Only about 100 folks gathered.  Seemed to be peaceful.  They want the city to tear down the statue of Christopher Columbus that stands in front of City Hall (a gift from the people of Genoa, Italy)  Why?  As everyone knows Chris was the founder of the white supremacy movement.  Really?  Guess you learn something new every day.

Its ironic that the confederate generals whose statues are being taken down were all Democrats.

Things are getting out of control. 

Let me know when they take down the statue of Margaret Sanger.  

There are also three statues in the US of Vladimir Lenin (who knew?).  Likely they will survive.  Also just about every public building in West Virginia is named for Democratic Senator Robert Byrd, who was a member of the KKK (Bill Clinton gave the eulogy at his funeral).

Thankee Michael. Spot on, as usual. Get rid of Chris Columbus, George Washington, Jefferson (well, I never like Tom anyway, a smug deist and really an "atheist waiting for Darwin" :) and so on. But this new "Robert Lee" "development" has now restarted this debate (if "restart" is the right verb; it's just running at a fever pitch!) is a fiasco for the American "Left". And the "Right" too, as it shows just how shallow they can be. "The Donald" really does seem to have them both eating themselves alive. 

It is just amazing.

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/espn-robert-lee-moment-proves-trump-won-monument-debate-article-1.3435388

First, though, here are a couple of links to The Federalist and related articles:

http://thefederalist.com/2017/08/23/post-charlottesville-narrative-national-embarrassment/

 It is grotesque, bizarre, and so "1984", but then, that's the Left wherever you find 'em. I'll have more on this article immediate above in a following post.

Then there's this:

http://thefederalist.com/2017/08/22/vandals-destroying-monuments-theyve-taught-hate-america/ The article lists a dizzying array of utter insantiy, and them the author says:

This sort of wanton iconoclasm had until recently been largely the domain of Islamic terrorists. ISIS is well-known for gleefully destroying some of the world’s oldest treasures as part of its religious war. Now, it appears, they have something else in common with leftist statue vandals besides an ideology that justifies political violence and a rabid hatred of free expression: the desecration of historic monuments. 

An Préachán again: Isn't that oh so precious: the American Left is just like ISIS, desecrating historic monuments. Oh, and for a story detailing how depraved out society is, see:

http://thefederalist.com/2017/08/23/kindergarten-trans-discussion-daughter-came-home-crying-shaking-afraid-turn-boy/

 Here's the article initially linked to above: After ESPN’s Robert Lee moment and other insanity, it’s clear: Trump has won the monument debate.

 

By S. E. Cupp, who at the last few paragraphs makes herself look utterly stupd by her egregious comments about Trump supporting White Supremacy

An excerpt:

A pair of parallel events occurred last night that perfectly capture the surreal and troubling times in which we are living.

First, President Trump held a rally in Phoenix, in which he once again offered unto his base the reddest of red meat.

“They’re trying to take away our culture,” he said, of the exploding debate over Confederate statues and monuments.

“They’re trying to take away our history. And our weak leaders, they do it overnight. These things have been there for 150 years, for a hundred years. You go back to a university and it’s gone. Weak, weak people.”

Simultaneously, on the other side of the country, something else was happening. ESPN was scrambling to release a statement on a baffling assignment change that a sports website had caught wind of.

The decision to remove an Asian-American announcer named Robert Lee from calling University of Virginia’s home opener — “simply because of the coincidence of his name,” as ESPN inexplicably admits — unsurprisingly lit up the Internet with outrage, jokes and memes.

It also rendered inarguably true the assertion made by President Trump himself as well as many others that this debate will descend quickly and embarrassingly down a slippery slope. I’d argue the pre-emptive removal of an Asian-American sportscaster, who had nothing to do with the Civil War or slavery, from a college football game simply because his name sounds similar doesn’t represent a gradual slope, but a 1000-foot cliff.

In its mock-worthy statement, ESPN laments, “It’s a shame that this is even a topic of conversation and we regret that who calls play-by-play for a football game has become an issue.”

Of course, Robert Lee’s assignment change and “who calls play-by-play for a football game” is only an issue and topic of conversation because of ESPN’s dimwitted hyperventilating over fears that they would be mocked and embarrassed for having a guy named Robert Lee call their football game. But at a time when ESPN is facing heavy criticism for being an overtly liberal network, does anyone doubt what’s happening now is worse?

Whatever you think of the statue debate, one thing is now abundantly clear: President Trump has won it.

The list of offensive iconography grows by the hundreds every day. From removing Lee statues all over the South to changing the name of Fenway Park’s Yawkey Way and Boston’s Faneuil Hall, even abolitionist strongholds aren’t spared the scrutiny of ravenous liberal activists on a mission to run as far as they can towards crazy with this argument.

And yet, it gets even crazier. A writer at Vice News, Wilbert L. Cooper, wants to blow up Mount Rushmore. Why? Because “demystifying the historical figures of the past, pulling them off the great mountain top back down to Earth where they sh-t, farted, spit, pissed, f-----d, raped, murdered, died and rotted seems like important business for this country.”

In New York City, Mayor de Blasio has created a panel to review and remove “symbols of hate,” with even some of the Broadway sidewalk text documenting actual parades through the Canyon of Heroes in his crosshairs, and Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito railing against the statue of Christopher Columbus in Columbus Circle.

Over at the University of Southern California, activists are taking issue with the school’s mascot, a horse named Traveler. The mascot, according to his official bio, is “a symbol of ancient Troy. Its rider, with costume and sword, is a symbol of a Trojan warrior.”

So what’s the problem? Robert E. Lee’s horse was also named Traveller — spelled differently, but unacceptable nonetheless.

This is nonsense. What’s unnerving to conservatives like me, who are actually sympathetic to the fact that confederate flags, statues and monuments are painful reminders of one of our darkest moments as a nation — and have written so — is that this is exactly what Trump wants.