History Jul 6, 2020 at 3:29 pm

And what should be there instead?

Comments

2

The Territorial governor of Washington was killed fighting for the Union During the civil war so fuck the confederacy.

3

The Klan was in Seattle for a few years in the early 1920’s, but its real center of operations in Washington State was Skagit and Whatcom counties.

https://depts.washington.edu/civilr/kkk_seattle.htm

As for the confederate monument, take what remains and grind it into dust. Take that dust out into the ocean, and let it go. In its place, put up a memorial to the Grand Army of the Republic.

5

Nice work Matt. Great article. I especially liked the Gone With the Wind reference and the great closing sentence.

6

Daughters of the Confederacy are one of the most racist organizations in this country. It is a hate group tagged by the SPLC. Imagine my shock when I discovered so-called progressive white women in Seattle talking about being members. Boston has a large membership, too. This is not just a southern thing. And I live in Oregon, the most racist state in the Pacific Northwest. I did not know that until I moved here and realized I am actually living in the Mississippi of the PNW. Oregon has the smallest population of non-white people and the most KKK and other white supremacist groups. White supremacist terrorists live everywhere in this country, including Seattle.

7

It's a private cemetery, not public property. So there isn't much the city government can do about it one way or the other.

Now that the stupid "monument" has been toppled, the cemetery should clean it up and never speak of it again, if they have any sense. My guess is that it has been a source of annoyance to them for quite a while. I doubt they are required to let it be rebuilt if the UDC comes out of their bunker and wants to fix it. With confederate statues being ripped down all over the country, this has to be pretty low on their priority list.

On the other hand, neither the city nor the cemetery should build a new monument to Stewart, or anyone else. Again, it's a private cemetery. If the city wants to memorialize Stewart or any other Black pioneer or early resident, there are lots of far better places to do it than a private cemetery.

8

I have spent forty years of my life embracing the campiness of American society, including a Tween summer where I obsessed over the novel “Gone With The Wind” (which, credit where credit is due, is the gold standard for romance novels). Despite all of that, I somehow missed the United Daughters Of The Confederacy. How ridiculously pathetic does one have to be to claim membership in that organization?

9

How about we slice the granite up into nice slabs to furnish a lovely public toilet at the cemetery? We'll have to smash up the parts with inscriptions into gravel, of course.

10

Habitat for Humanity will almost always accept used granite as a donation. They can repurpose it into granite countertops and such.

Someone (or someones) with some muscle and a heavy duty pickup truck should go collect the remains.

11

Carve the granite into counter tops for more grotesquely over priced condos on Capitol Hill - now with free tear gas!

12

Fuck, I don't want traitor countertops. I like the idea of urinals though.

15

I like just leaving the remnants to stay right where they are, and allow Mother Nature take over - let it revert - might be a good habitat for groundlings and assorted tiny mammals. An archaeological find for future denizens.

16

Downfall dear, what is your reason for not trusting the SPLC? I’m sure you give us some references, and that we will enjoy that very much.

17

Matt where did you learn to be a journalist? There's a lot more history regarding this monument and the (attempted) removal which you were too lazy to add to your story or didn't feel like including. SeattlePI did a story on this a couple years ago during the latest attempt to REMOVE the monument. There was an appeal to then mayor Ed Murray and the Seattle City Council which went nowhere. The UDC was one organization that came to the council meeting to advocate for its removal. Ed Murray basically said nothing he can do since private property but then apparently changed his mind.

https://blog.seattlepi.com/capitolhill/2018/03/20/removing-seattles-confederate-memorial-united-daughters-of-the-confederacy-veterans-for-peace-and-a-museum-find-common-ground/

18

https://ussturnerjoy.org/ next stop, Bremerton. Somebody please sink this monument.

19

And don't let's forget Maury island:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Lewis_Maury?wprov=sfla1

20

@17,

If I had to guess, I'd say he was probably familiar with that element of the monument's history, but didn't include it because it wasn't especially interesting and didn't really add much to the overall narrative. Where did you learn to be a journalist?

21

Grind it into parakeet grit and line their cages with pages from "The Art of the Deal."

23

Might I suggest the ample form of Dina Martina? It would be a blessed jift to Seattle.

24

It was a nice structure. All that was needed was to sandblast the lettering off and engrave something else.

25

The SPLC has taken to attacking groups that don't fall in line with their ideology somy for revenue generating machines. And they should remove the beam from their own eye:

"This is not the first time the center has had to deal with public issues of workplace conduct. In 1994, The Montgomery Advertiser published an eight-part series on the S.P.L.C. that included allegations of discriminatory treatment of black employees.

The report included accounts from staff members accusing Mr. Dees of being a racist, and suggested that black employees felt threatened. The center and Mr. Dees denied the accusations."

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2019/03/14/us/morris-dees-southern-poverty-law-center-fired.amp.html

26

The SPLC has taken to attacking groups that don't fall in line with their ideology simply for revenue generating machines. And they should remove the beam from their own eye:

"This is not the first time the center has had to deal with public issues of workplace conduct. In 1994, The Montgomery Advertiser published an eight-part series on the S.P.L.C. that included allegations of discriminatory treatment of black employees.

The report included accounts from staff members accusing Mr. Dees of being a racist, and suggested that black employees felt threatened. The center and Mr. Dees denied the accusations."

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2019/03/14/us/morris-dees-southern-poverty-law-center-fired.amp.html

27

@16 The SPLC has done great work in the past. But now they have the lowest standards of what constitutes a hate group, which makes sense from their standpoint because that's how they make money/stay relevant.

"In his piece, Robinson describes the map as an "outright fraud," and it's hard to argue with him:

In fact, when you actually look at the hate map, you find something interesting: Many of these "groups" barely seem to exist at all. A "Holocaust denial" group in Kerrville, Texas called "carolynyeager.net" appears to just be a woman called Carolyn Yeager. A "male supremacy" group called Return of Kings is apparently just a blog published by pick-up artist Roosh V and a couple of his friends, and the most recent post is an announcement from six months ago that the project was on indefinite hiatus. Tony Alamo, the abusive cult leader of "Tony Alamo Christian Ministries," died in prison in 2017. (Though his ministry's website still promotes "Tony Alamo's Unreleased Beatles Album.") A "black nationalist" group in Atlanta called "Luxor Couture" appears to be an African fashion boutique. "Sharkhunters International" is one guy who really likes U-boats and takes small groups of sad Nazis on tours to see ruins and relics. And good luck finding out much about the "Samanta Roy Institute of Science and Technology," which—if it is currently operative at all—is a tiny anti-Catholic cult based in Shawano, Wisconsin."

https://reason.com/2019/03/27/southern-poverty-law-center-hate-crime/

29

No, Seattle definitely shouldn't have Confederate statue, or Columbus, ... I agree 100%!

No, Seattle shouldn't have statues for Native Americans, either. A few hundred years ago, Native Americans did horrific things to other defeated Native American tribes.

No statues for any white person; white priviledge of course.

Definitely no statue for any white heterosexual male; can anyone be more evil?

No statues for any Black person, except Dr. King? But, is he even pure?

No statues for any Asian; too successful. Ruins other races' justification for claiming racial discrimination.

I vote for celebrating no one, because no one person is pure, no one race is pure.

31

6 - Actually, Idaho is #1 per capita for hate groups as of 2018 SPLC data. Oregon was #7. For sheer numbers, it's California. I looked around for more updated, but didn't find any that supported Oregon as having the most.

Agree Oregon does have a lot, tho.

32

Good riddance.

33

How about changing it to honor the Union soldiers instead? Or perhaps Black union soldiers? Or something like 'those who fought to uphold the Union and end Slavery'. Basically, keep it Civil War themed.


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