General N. Bedford Forrest

[tabitha2]

ya'll know about Stone Mountain right?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_Moun ... e_Memorial

That is something to be protested don't you think?

[Witsec7]

ya'll know about Stone Mountain right?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_Moun ... e_Memorial

That is something to be protested don't you think?

Stone Mtn, like the Civil War Memorial is on private property. I'm waiting for the day that some wahoo buys a mountain and decides to carve a bust of Hitler in it.

[grateful1230]

Stone Mountain also features a laser light show and fireworks, if my vague childhood memories are correct. I went many times as a kid but I don't remember being told that it was a monument to Confederate soldiers. I do remember that the laser lights were cool, and that I was going to Six Flags the next day :)

[Peas n carrots]

One thoughtful poster remarked that Germany doesn't put up statues of Hitler because Germany improved economically in the '30's. Why? Because he marginalized, pillaged and murdered the vulnerable to fatten the coffers.

Forrest did this, just on a smaller scale. Those fuckwit commentators on al.com have no clue because they've never been fucked over the way their hero and his predecessors fucked over generations of African Americans. I posted that they can gloat now, but they'll be judged later as being on the wrong side of history.

I nearly made the Hitler comment myself. There is a reason statutes of Stalin, Lenin, Saddam etcare pulled down after revolutions.

I do like the idea of letting the monument remain, but add a historically accurate plaque next to it. We need reminders that the past wasn't the good old' days for everyone.

[donks]

My town (in the deep South) not only has a NBF monument, we also have a HUGE building that bears his name. It was originally The Forrest Hotel. It's now a banquet hall and shops on the lower levels and expensive apartments on the upper floors.

Side note: My friend does catering for large events and sometimes I get the nod to help. Well one such occasion was at the Forrest Building. I was in there alone (locked in alone), washing potatoes in the basement and someone walked right up behind me. Cold breeze and all. That building is fucking haunted!

If you're interested:

http://www.forrestplace.net/

[Guest Anonymous]

I think a plaque would be a sop. People don't need to read plaques (whereas, it would be a lot more difficult to ignore a bust).

Removing a monument or statue is not the same as hiding from the past. I utterly reject the idea that we need to keep memorials to bad people who did bad things just so we don't forget the past. I can see Stalin's face on book covers and adverts for museum exhibits and I can remember who he was. I could turn on one of the documentary channels right now and, chances are, they'll be hours and hours of programming about Nazis. There don't need to be statues of Hitler or Stalin around for people to remember them. Busts, statues, and monuments, etc., aren't just about remembering a person or an event, they're also about revering that thing. When you don't revere a person, you don't memorialize them like that. That's why Hitler's bunker is a car-park now.

[terranova]

I think a plaque would be a sop. People don't need to read plaques (whereas, it would be a lot more difficult to ignore a bust).

Removing a monument or statue is not the same as hiding from the past. I utterly reject the idea that we need to keep memorials to bad people who did bad things just so we don't forget the past. I can see Stalin's face on book covers and adverts for museum exhibits and I can remember who he was. I could turn on one of the documentary channels right now and, chances are, they'll be hours and hours of programming about Nazis. There don't need to be statues of Hitler or Stalin around for people to remember them. Busts, statues, and monuments, etc., aren't just about remembering a person or an event, they're also about revering that thing. When you don't revere a person, you don't memorialize them like that. That's why Hitler's bunker is a car-park now.

Totally agree. NBF has been made a matyr to the cause of white supremacy. No fucker like him deserves a statue.

I don't care if one person or one million people are protesting at his memorial, they should be applauded and it IS newsworthy.

[Burris]

I think about those twenty people, who decided to speak out against the majority. Those twenty people getting screamed at by their neighbors. Those twenty people had the courage to stand against the majority who hold NBF as a hero of the south.

I agree. Those 20 people are standing up to the kind of frightening acrimony that appears in the article's comment section. And for every one of those 20, there are probably so many more who won't or can't do what the picketers are doing - because NBF's BFFs are still thriving and still threatening.

The KKK as an organization has the distinct dishonor of having formed some of the world's first modern death squads to conduct lynchings and other murders, as well as numerous acts that fell just short of murder. Their group arose as the resisting remnant of a failed secession attempt and not merely as a racist organization, but it is and always has been racist to the core.

Nonetheless, I think the monument should be rebuilt if for no other reason than as a simple reminder that people will still pay to keep that thing from crumbling to dust. The effort at restoration is a lesson in itself, as are the comments the mods over at AL allow through.

These people are still out there. Waiting for the right combination of economic and social conditions so that they might flourish again - terrorists by any definition. They're stronger when no one is looking; when their actions are hidden by the dark, their faces obscured by hoods.

It's best when they make themselves known. When their IPs are logged. When their names are on checks. Let them show their naked faces when claiming NBF was a damned good guy.

They have the freedom of speech. They can fucking hang themselves with it.

[Witsec7]

Nonetheless, I think the monument should be rebuilt if for no other reason than as a simple reminder that people will still pay to keep that thing from crumbling to dust. The effort at restoration is a lesson in itself, as are the comments the mods over at AL allow through.

I have been posting there for almost 12 years. The racism is increasing, and well tolerated.

This week those 20 people are my heroes. They are average folks who are willing to walk through their community with bulls eyes on their shirts.

[Arete]

I have been posting there for almost 12 years. The racism is increasing, and well tolerated.

This week those 20 people are my heroes. They are average folks who are willing to walk through their community with bulls eyes on their shirts.

I don't think it's increasing, I think it's just more out in the open. They kept under their rock for the longest time, but now with outlets like FOX to give them attention and the rage that is fueling them over the Obama presidency, they've sprouted out into public again.

[Witsec7]

I don't think it's increasing, I think it's just more out in the open. They kept under their rock for the longest time, but now with outlets like FOX to give them attention and the rage that is fueling them over the Obama presidency, they've sprouted out into the open again.

Al.com is run by Advancenets, for almost twelve years they have let racist and threatening comments stand. All that matters is that their advertisers get the click$.

[Arete]

Al.com is run by Advancenets, for almost twelve years they have let racist and threatening comments stand. All that matters is that their advertisers get the click$.

I am trying so hard to hang on to the hope that we are not doomed.

[JesusFightClub]

Statues tend to be of people in heroic poses, too. Were that Stalin or Hitler, it would be...somewhat disturbing.

They are places some people go on kind of pilgrimages and sometimes put flowers etc on anniversaries. It then may not be a good idea to keep the statue in place. If you kept up a statue of Hitler where he topped himself, you'd get neo Nazis and all kinds of fash coming from all over to commemorate their hero. Talk about lowering the tone of the neighbourhood...

[Witsec7]

Statues tend to be of people in heroic poses, too. Were that Stalin or Hitler, it would be...somewhat disturbing.

They are places some people go on kind of pilgrimages and sometimes put flowers etc on anniversaries. It then may not be a good idea to keep the statue in place. If you kept up a statue of Hitler where he topped himself, you'd get neo Nazis and all kinds of fash coming from all over to commemorate their hero. Talk about lowering the tone of the neighbourhood...

Eh the final bunker is a car park today for that very reason.

The NBF statue was a bust on a pillar, put up around 2000. It was defaced recently :roll: ergo the restoration in the confederate (not civil war) memorial. And since I've been posting with those crackers for too long I will also add, they really think they got hosed during the civil war. Another :roll: is really required.

[JesusFightClub]

They sound like total dicks.

We've got a big statue of Adam Smith which gets graffiti now and again (the last one I remember was the imaginative "FUCK CAPITALISM" :lol: ) and one of David Hume, it's a kind of student ritual to climb up him and put a traffic cone on his head. I suppose the most controversial one we have is Adam Smith, can't imagine having to put up with these wankers that want to keep a statue of the founder of the KKK.

[Burris]

The racism is increasing, and well tolerated.

Maybe - but not by those 20 people, and not by you.

I used to think it was complete bullshit that sometimes all it took were a few people just standing up for something to turn back the tide of human sewage.

Turns out I was wrong...