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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsCruz, Gohmert demand Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery to REMOVE Bust of Margaret Sanger
Two Texas Republicans, Sen. Ted Cruz and Rep. Louie Gohmert, wrote a letter demanding that a bust of eugenicist, abortion advocate and Planned Parenthood founder, Margaret Sanger, be removed from the Smithsonians National Portrait Gallery.
WASHINGTON, D.C. Last week, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), along with 24 House Republicans, sent a letter to the Director of the National Portrait Gallery Kim Sajet, calling for the immediate removal of Margaret Sangers bust from the Smithsonians National Portrait Gallery. The bust is on display in the Gallerys Struggle for Justice exhibit.
Sanger, a founder of Planned Parenthood, believed in using contraceptives to control the population of minorities, or people she deemed as undesirables. Specifically, Sanger advocated for the extermination of African-Americans. The letter, written by Sen. Cruz, Rep. Gohmert, and other conservative members, echoes a recent petition of pastors and supporters affiliated with S.T.A.N.D. who also demanded that Sangers bust be removed.
There is no ambiguity in what Margaret Sangers bust represents: hatred, racism, and the destruction of unborn life, Sen. Cruz said. Not only should we continue efforts to redirect funds from Planned Parenthood, an organization founded by Sanger that is currently under criminal investigation, we must also work to ensure that her inhumane lifes work is in no way promoted.
It is a complete and utter outrage to display a bust of Margaret Sanger in the National Portrait Gallery. In addition to this, it is appalling to honor her as part of the Struggle for Justice collection, Rep. Gohmert said. One of the founders of Planned Parenthood, Mrs. Sanger portrayed deep-rooted racism by advocating birth control as a method for controlling the population of minorities. This prejudice must not be celebrated or exalted. Her bust should be removed not only from the exhibit but from the National Portrait Gallery altogether, since her legacy is one of prejudice against minorities and widespread destruction of their unborn human lives.
Read more: http://www.bizpacreview.com/2015/10/15/cruz-gohmert-lead-demand-for-smithsonians-national-portrait-gallery-to-remove-this-immediately-263875#ixzz3ofpdCWUh
HassleCat
(6,409 posts)As long as we have to tolerate Reagan's grinning visage everywhere, a few images of Margaret Sanger are no big deal.
CaliforniaPeggy
(149,754 posts)So she wasn't perfect? Nobody is.
She did help found Planned Parenthood, and that fact alone is enough to keep her in the National Portrait Gallery.
The good she did far outweighs any bad.
CTyankee
(63,914 posts)I don't think she founded PP just to "exterminate" black people. She really believed that women should have control over their reproductive systems. This article is SO slanted...
CaliforniaPeggy
(149,754 posts)CTyankee
(63,914 posts)Our PP state affiliate (now PP of Southern New England to include Rhode Island) was founded by Estelle Griswold, who was important in the fight to FINALLY get the Supreme Court to rule on legalization of contraceptives in Griswold v. Connecticut, and was the basis for Roe v. Wade. The site of the clinic that was closed by police because they were dispensing diaphragms (against CT law) is one of the places I take newcomers on my "tour of New Haven's famous places." That clinic has moved several times since then and now operates a bifurcated building to literally separate the gynecological clinic and the clinic that provides abortion care. The people who claim that the funding is commingled are totally WRONG. When I was seeking major gifts I had to make that clear to donors for tax deduction purposes. The abortion side was NOT funded by government money. Period.
CaliforniaPeggy
(149,754 posts)And it's interesting. It's good to hear the inside details from one who has been there!
CTyankee
(63,914 posts)That would be my guess, based on my fundraising background.
Rex
(65,616 posts)Cruz would have her bust replaced with Hitler or Stalin. Two men he can identify with.
Thinkingabout
(30,058 posts)woodsprite
(11,938 posts)hifiguy
(33,688 posts)AngryAmish
(25,704 posts)She may have made the trains run on time and broken a few eggs, but Margaret Sanger was an unreconstructed bigot who devoted her life to getting rid of minorities. Feet of ckay and all that.
There is Stalin's Volunteer Photoshop Legion, who wants to get rid of any reference to our party's founder, Andrew Jackson, and any southerner from the past. You made this bed. Explain why this is different.
femmocrat
(28,394 posts)This scholarly article shows how Sanger was influenced by the times in which she lived. It gives a balanced view of her shortcomings, but illustrates that she was also
forward-thinking. The author goes into the how and why of her racial biases which were common at that time, even espoused by Teddy Roosevelt!
Excerpt: ". . . since anti-choice fanatics seem utterly incapable of making an honest argument in support of their position that Black women should be forced into childbirth rather than permitted to make their own decisions about what to do with their bodies, they resort to lies, misinformation, and half-truths about Sanger and the organization she founded."
http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2015/08/20/false-narratives-margaret-sanger-used-shame-black-women/
Faux pas
(14,701 posts)keep on dripping.