A statue of Thomas Jefferson has been removed from New York City Hall after a unanimous vote.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

David Weigel Retweeted

A statue of Thomas Jefferson, who was the third president of the United States, has been removed from New York City Hall after a unanimous vote by a committee, because of his links to the slave trade.

I mean the buried lede here is why was this done by a committee — that is, the unelected Public Design Commission — instead of by debate and a vote by City Council? these labyrinth unelected bureaucracies are outright antithetical to the American ideal

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Link to tweet

[Tomconroy]

1. OMG. The lunacy never ends.

[lapfog_1]

2. This is going to backfire on the "woke"

We are correct to remove the statues of the Confederates, but we shouldn't start going after one of the greatest of our founding fathers, despite his flaws.

[Sneederbunk]

3. Twelve US presidents owned slaves.

[hlthe2b]

4. I think we have to come to terms with it. Removing statues deifying confederate leadership--

those who fought to destroy this country-- is one thing (and I agree that those should be returned to the civil war memorials and related museums, rather than the public spaces of honor).


That said, I just cannot justify conflating the founders of this country, despite their serious failings, to remove them as well. True context presented around those memorials and statues is the way to present history, IMO. Both the good and the bad.

[Tomconroy]

5. I've been in this game a hundred years, and I am seeing

Ways of losing that I have never seen before.

Casey Stengel