Unfounded?
Assaulted from Within …
A statue honoring founding father George Washington was torn down recently by protestors in Portland, Oregon. An American flag was draped over the bronze likeness of our revered first president of the United States and burned. “Genocidal Colonialist” was spray painted on the fallen Washington.
Emblazoned on the statue were also the number, “1619.” 1619 represents “The 1619 Project” an ongoing project developed by The New York Times Magazine in 2019 to re-examine the legacy of slavery in the United States and timed for the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first Africans in Virginia.
Images of statuary violence in Portland were beamed around the world, reminiscent of some critics of the protests, of the toppling of statues of Saddam Hussein, Vladimir Lenin, and other American protagonists. President Trump even rushed without consent from either house of Congress, an ill-advised Executive Order that would saddle protestors with harsh long-term prison sentences if they are found to have attacked these monuments.
United States Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), a leading potential Democratic vice presidential candidate, told CNN’s State of the Union on the day after Independence Day, that she is open to discussion on tearing down statues of founders like George Washington. Duckworth is a decorated former military officer who was awarded the Purple Heart for severe combat-related injuries.
Weeks before Senator Duckworth’s shocking announcement, Thomas Jefferson’s likeness in bronze was torn down from a high school bearing his name in Portland as well. Our third president and the author of the U.S. Declaration of Independence had likewise been defiled for a controversial portion of his life that has been rumored and recounted since his expansive days in the White House.
Two days after America celebrated Independence Day, a direct descendant of Jefferson, Lucian Truscott IV, a great-great-great-great-grandson, advocated that the federal government replace the Jefferson Memorial on the Tidal Basin with a tribute to Harriet Tubman, the founder of the Underground Railroad from the Civil War era, instead.
Truscott was quoted as saying of his opinion, "I think we've paid enough attention to the founding fathers over the years and it's time to celebrate some of the women that helped found this country. I describe Harriet Tubman as helping to found the America that came along after slavery."
Truscott was joined by another direct descendant of Jefferson, Shannon LaNier who added, “These public statues were put in place for the wrong reasons and to glorify people who were flawed. We have to start looking at these people as human beings, not gods, not idols.”
The White House itself, a symbol of American pride and prestige, was built in part with the skill of slaves. Do we tear it down as a result?
Do we level the Washington Monument?
The Jefferson Memorial?
