Discussion for article #238151
The statue has been a source of controversy on campus for a while, and a
statue honoring slaves was built in 2005 “in part to act as a voice to
counter the negative connotations of the Confederate Monument,”
Negative connotation? Surely you jest!
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Though in the alternate universe constructed by the Daughters of the Confederacy, there was no conscription and no slavery, it’s a monument to all the UNC students who were drafted into the CSA’s army and never made it back. So it’s at least an ambiguous connotation.
Of course, students being students, it pretty quickly became an object of irreverence. He’s called “Silent Sam” because he’s alleged to fire his gun whenever a virgin passes.
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Dear trustees, just see it as a source of revenue and auction it off or send it off to that state confederate museum that will shortly welcome the statehouse flag. State property should not contain tributes to traitors or accolades to racists. This is really not that difficult.
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Vandalism is never the right way to go.
And this statue honors UNC students who fought, not he CSA.
So it’s a much stickier situation and harder to parse.
As is often the case, a lot of Americans are overreacting and trying to eliminate all references to the Civil War from public spaces in the South.
This is both stupid and futile.
A little rationality would be good about now.
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THEY HAve NO reSPect FOR SOutherN TRadITIOns LIKe STAtes RIGhts and lOWER taXEs and OTher STUFF that ISN’t SLAvery.
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The statue, by virtue of just being there, is a crime. Celebrating treason and the ownership of human beings but pretending its about cotton or pride is a slap in the face to an entire community and race of people besides just the intelligence of the general population.
Is there no other source of pride for the south than celebrating the leaders of treason and slavery?
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And, besides, donors. Donors. Donors.
Agree about vandalism being wrong, but I’m withholding judgement on “Black Lives Matter” supporters until we find out who actually did the spray painting.
That’s just bullshit.
The statue honors UNC students who died in the war.
It doesn’t glorify slavery or anything else negative.
The correct name of the man represented by the statue is William Saunders
Someone thinks that it does.
You, are much more in the know than many. Some people, and rightly so I believe, see all representations of that war as offensive, right or wrong. Who are we to tell them how to react.
And I didn’t literally mean a crime.
At bottom this is a memorial to traitors to this country, and one participant at the unveiling in 1913 said
100 yards from where we stand, less than 90 days perhaps after my return from Appomattox, I horse-whipped a negro wench, until her skirts hung in shreds, because upon the streets of this quiet village she had publicly insulted and maligned a Southern lady,
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In 1869-1870, he became known as the chief organizer of the Ku Klux Klan in North Carolina and Chapel Hill.
Who gives a shit what his name is
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Primarily those who don’t know who this guy was and attempted to research him online with the wrong name, that’s precisely who cares about the correct name.
Have your anger checked!!!
Seems there are a large number of people who disagree with your belief.
Slavery and secession were central to the cause of the Civil War, the Lost Cause as it turned out, and southerners wanted to preserve slavery. Students who fought were part of that movement
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The Honorable William Saunders, chief organizer of the KKK in NC and Chapel HIll.
That’s better
It figures. There really is no glorifying an individual without glorifying the cause and the treasonous war itself. Also, the stain of slavery and pain behind the history of that.
This is a man bragging about whipping a woman. Some hero.
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The man who said this was according to the HuffPo article was one Julian Carr, an industrialist, who probably spoke for a great many people.
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