Civil rights groups blast plan for King memorial at Confederate display in Georgia

[Little Tich]

Source: Yahoo! News / Reuters

ATLANTA (Reuters) - Civil rights groups are outraged by a proposal for black leader Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to be honored alongside heroes of the pro-slavery Confederacy at Georgia's Stone Mountain Park and raised their objections with the governor on Wednesday.

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference and local chapters of the NAACP instead want Confederate symbols removed from prominent display at the family-oriented park.

“Under no condition or circumstances are we going to let any memorial to Dr. King be integrated with the Confederacy,” said Charles Steele Jr., president of the national SCLC, founded and led by King.

He said no decision was made at the meeting, but the civil rights groups expect to meet again soon with Georgia Republican Governor Nathan Deal. His office could not be reached for comment.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/civil-rights-groups-blast-plan-king-memorial-confederate-174646977.html

[PosterChild]

1. King calls out stone mountain in his...

.... I have a dream speach. What an idiotic idea to memorialize him there. I'm not sure whoever proposed this was being deliberately hostile but it is certainly a stone-headed idea.

I had a picnic with a friend there and in that place, of all places, he and his wife expressed their discomfort and disgust with having to put up with the public display of the Confederate flag, and here we were under that god-awful bas relief of confederate traitors and criminals !

Honor King by grinding that image to dust.

[7962]

2. Well, its not going anywhere. I thought this was a fine idea.

It would be well ABOVE the sculpture!

[Hortensis]

4. The carving of Jefferson Davis, Stonewall Jackson, and Robert E. Lee

both honors and is part of Georgia's history. I'm a liberal transplant from California and it holds no nostalgia for me, but grinding it away will not change history and, notably, those for whom it does have meaning have rights too.

I'd like to see MLK's memorial there, big and important, marking the evolution of our society. If not, though, then there are other places that can be honored with it.

PosterChild, what disgusts me far more is the ongoing construction of subdivisions, restaurants, etc., that are named plantation this and plantation that. Plantations, of course, were created on the bloody and broken backs of slaves, and we should not be continually honoring and romanticizing an evil system.

In addition to new, most historic plantations were purchased by investors and made into centerpieces for expensive golf courses, meeting halls, hotels, etc., that are very popular and lucrative. The GOP held a convention at one in Virginia, I think, a couple of years ago. They are extremely popular for weddings.

I say people wanting to put the evils of slavery behind would do better to refuse to romanticize the plantation system and wax nostalgic over it. Better to leave the historic carvings of long-dead figures alone and instead refuse to buy new homes in The Plantation at Dorsett Shoals or eat at Plantation Buffet. Holding weddings and dances at places synonymous with great misery should be considered in bad taste -- at very least.

[PosterChild]

5. It isn't about "changing" history....

... it is about glorification of an aspect of history that should not be publicly glorified and treated as heroic. Since this is a public park, not private property, the rights of individuals are not an issue. A public decision to do away with this monument would no more be a violation of anyone's rights than the decision to establish it was,

The traitors of the Confederacy deserve no public glorification .

[Hortensis]

6. I understand and agree about not glorifying, but acknowledging is a

different matter. It's dishonest to pretend it didn't happen, and I believe also a mistake. That's why I personally would sort of like to see the MLK monument right there. Let the world see who prevailed and who lost. Understanding of how far we have come and the direction society has taken, as well as the need to continue to progress, would be enhanced by the juxtaposition of distant past, near past and today. Trees might be planted to focus attention on that juxtaposition from some positions and also to hide it from others to focus on the individual monuments. Perhaps some day other monuments would join them to mark further progress, or lapses.

I absolutely disagree that the wishes of the citizenry should not be considered or that ignoring those wishes would not be a violation of their rights. Fact is, a lot of people down here are very attached to their history because it is their history, good and bad. Most, black and white, are descendants of the people who lived that history.

Importantly, we now know that a tendency to bigotry is hard-wired into some people by genetics and then increased or decreased by environmental factors. Ignoring the reality of bigotry and imagining it will just disappear over time would be like ignoring a fire and assuming that'd just go away. These people and their natural tendency to hostility toward any and all people not like them will always be with us.

What we need to do is create an environment in which unreasoned hate cannot thrive by fostering understanding and knowledge of ourselves and our history, and with it, critically, a general societal habit of respect for the wishes and rights of decent people.

My opinion anyway.

[Ford_Prefect]

3. So much for false equivalency...