How about Freedom Plaza?
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This is just across the line in North Carolina, near Farner TN
I took a friend who taught anthropology there right after he’d returned from Guatemala, photographing the way the old Gods of the Maya have become the Catholic Saints in colorful images and statues…”Here the Word is literally made concrete.”
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Uhh …Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge “America’s most overrated tourist destination “; the Hillbilly Equivalent of the Redneck Riviera…Dollywood would take a hit, for a good cause…
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I drove through there once on a misnavigated route to Rabun County GA that was quite an experience!
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I used to have to attend meetings there: my notions of hell include Gatlinburg on a holiday weekend…Your route took you through Cherokee and Franklin NC? Im 35 mi. w. of Franklin.
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West of Franklin an w/in NC? That one trip was in the late 80s so the details escape me (other than Great Smoky NP). Every subsequent trip I took to Clayton had me picking up state route 441 in NC. My Granny passed away ~15 years ago so have not been back since then.
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Yup, west.
You bet, @jacksonhts, I-40 and I-75 are among the most traveled interstate highways in the nation.
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I feel like most religious beliefs in the past have evolved into the current popular beliefs. E.g. Hercules and his quest to appease the gods’ wrath into Jesus appeasing God’s.
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Yes and, presumably, black unemployment was at 0.0000%! 
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Tennessee Republicans are defending NBF and the decision in 1978 to place the bust in the capitol. I think Rep. Lamar is wrong- there are members of the legislature that would be perfectly fine with her being enslaved and not able to bring up such unpleasant ideas as not celebrating the live of Forrest once a year. We want to believe all the racists and supremacists don’t hold positions of power, but some do.
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Who wrote that headline? And whose leg?
“…After Leg Stands Up For Slave Trader Again.”
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When I lived in Kansas, I visited the Garden of Eden several times. There too the word of God made concrete.
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It’s not just a bust in the state house. Forrest is “honored” all over TN. It’s one thing to honor the “history”, it’s another to honor the individuals within it. Especially vile creatures like the first Grand Wizard of the KKK… if you name a State Park after someone, you are basically advocating and embracing their positions in life. The South has a long way to go yet…
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I’m inclined to say that it is a borderline case of low/high fantasy. Set in the real world, with real places, and occasional historic figure with angelic visitations and the like, but it starts out high fantasy for sure, and the newer part contains a classic supernatural hero figure.
Perfect example of the Rank-Raglan Mythotope:
If you read the section about critiquing the Rank-Raglan scoring system it is ironic to see someone seeking to discredit it by showing that “historical” figures like Buddha, Jesus and Muhammad rank high on the scale. Historical inquiry has recently considered that their life histories, if not the very existence, are mostly manufactured mythologizing.
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I think the governor absolutely should issue a proclamation on NBF day. He can use it to lay out the true history of NBF and the drive to commemorate him. He can skewer him and his supporters by quoting, from time to time, Mark Antony’s speech at Caesar’s funeral from Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar” in which he skewers Caesar’s assassins: “So are they all, all honorable men.”
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I’m perfectly happy to let others believe in it if it makes them feel better. Just hope they can let me and others disbelieve and not try to force us to also be driven by it.
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Right. I had momentary confusion, too, and finally decided they meant “Lege” (as in “Legislature”), as the late, great Molly Ivins regularly referred to the Texas Legislature.
At the risk of putting too fine a point on it and as Dr. James Loewen describes in his terrific book, “Lies Across America”, Forrest is (or was, at least at the time of its initial publication) more honored in TN–w/ greater numbers of monuments, etc.–than George Washington is in Virginia!
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