UW-Madison students call for removal of Lincoln statue

[PTWB]

76. Indeed.

The confederate flag is NOT a statue of Abraham Lincoln. I'm happy I was able to help you reach that conclusion. Banning the confederate flag at events where it has historically been ubiquitous, removing it from the flag of Mississippi, toppling confederate statues and renaming military bases that had been named after confederate generals are all examples of iconoclasm. Iconoclasm is not, as you suggested, a "dead end." Just the opposite in fact.

I'm sorry I misunderstood your previous post. When you wrote, "Note the degree of opposition you are arousing here, on this forum" I understood you to be talking about the forum. You seem to craft your posts with more than a modicum of precision and if you'd intended to call attention to this thread I would have expected you to say so specifically, which is why my response included references to past threads.

As you are certainly aware the tides of acceptance are ever shifting in society. Not long ago gay marriage was illegal and supporting it was considered a losing political issue. Marijuana was illegal and supporting legalization was considered a losing political issue. Black Lives Matter was originally met with huge pushback from mainstream society as being too radical but now look at the movement roar!

Soon I will be able to say the same for 'defunding' the police - which really means disbanding the police and reforming law enforcement in the image of modern society. That movement could do with some branding and marketing assistance but it will get there.

It wont be long before removing statues and monuments to racist white men, despite their contributions to our nation's history, will be seen as just as acceptable as the aforementioned "radical" movements are today.