COMMENTARY
As Michael Scheuer wrote, the Democratic Party is the
party of the four S's: slavery, secession, segregation and now socialism.
For details, see the article "The Party of Civil Rights" by Kevin D. Williamson that was published May
28, 2012 in NR.
U. S. Congressman Vern Buchanan in a letter to his Florida constituents wrote:
“A
nearly 200-year-old statue of Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration
of Independence, the third President of the United States and one of America’s
Founding Fathers, has been removed from City Hall in New York City.
“The
man who infamously wrote “all men are created equal” and the founder of the
party that evolved into today’s Democratic Party is now being removed from the
public sphere – by Democrats.
“If
the “woke mob” can topple Thomas Jefferson and George Washington, who’s next?
“Even
in our own back yard, the infamous “Unconditional Surrender” statue in Sarasota
nearly fell victim to the radical left’s calls for removal. I advocated to keep
the statue right where it is, as it honors the Greatest Generation and the end
of World War II. Much like the statue of Jefferson – it should be celebrated,
not hidden.”
_______________
Thomas
Jefferson statue removed from City Hall after 187 years
By Julia Marsh | The New York Post
Thomas Jefferson
is no longer in the room where it happens.
Art handlers packed up an 884-pound statue of Jefferson in a wooden crate Monday after a mayoral commission voted to banish the likeness of the nation’s third president from City Hall, where it’s resided for nearly two centuries — because he owned slaves.
About a dozen workers with Marshall Fine Arts spent
several hours carefully removing the painted plaster monument from its pedestal
inside the City Council chambers and surrounding it with sections of foam and
wooden boards.
They then lowered the massive structure down the stairs
leading to the building’s first-floor rotunda with a pulley system and ushered
the Founding Father out the back door.
The 1833 statue will be on a long-term loan to the New
York Historical Society, which plans to have Jefferson’s model survive in its
lobby and reading room.
Keri Butler, executive director of the Public Design
Commission that voted to banish the statue, at first tried to block the press
from witnessing its removal. Butler relented after members of the mayor’s
office and City Council intervened.
The commission also attempted to vote on the statue’s
removal without a public hearing on the controversial move until The Post
revealed the plan.
“Removing a monument without a public conversation about
why it’s happening is useless. New Yorkers all need to talk about who we want
to honor and why,” said Erin Thompson, a professor at John Jay College of
Criminal Justice who authored the forthcoming book “Smashing Statues: The Rise
and Fall of America’s Public Monuments.”
Thompson said the removal could spark a broader
understanding of history. “Moving this statue doesn’t mean New Yorkers will
forget who Thomas Jefferson was — but some of them might learn from the
controversy that the man who wrote ‘all men are created equal’ owned over 600
of his fellow humans,” Thompson said.
Members of the City Council were split on the statue’s
removal from its chambers.
Minority leader Joe Borelli (R-Staten Island) called the
move an attempt to “sideline history” while Black, Latino and Asian Caucus
co-chair I. Daneek Miller (D-Queens) said he wanted the statue gone because it
doesn’t represent contemporary values.
The original bronze statue, by sculptor Pierre-Jean
David, is still on display in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, DC. The
plaster replica was gifted to City Hall by naval officer and Jefferson admirer
Uriah Phillips Levy in 1834.
https://nypost.com/2021/11/22/thomas-jefferson-statue-leaves-city-hall-after-187-years/
