Protesters tear down statues of Union general Ulysses S. Grant, national anthem

[Ptarmigan]

Protesters tear down statues of Union general Ulysses S. Grant, national anthem lyricist Francis Scott Key
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/503685-protesters-tear-down-statues-of-union-general-ulysses-s-grant-national

Protesters in San Francisco on Friday toppled the statue of former President Grant, who led the Union Army during the Civil War, in Golden Gate Park.

San Francisco police said that approximately 400 people gathered around 8 p.m. to take down the statue, though no arrests were made, according to NBC Bay Area.

Also torn down in the park on Friday were the statues of St. Junipero Serra and Francis Scott Key, who wrote the lyrics to "The Star-Spangled Banner."

Rioters tore down Ulysses S Grant, St. Junipero Serra, and Francis Scott Key statues in San Francisco.

Ulysses S Grant was a Union general who did own slaves and married a family who owned slaves. He also help defeat the Confederacy. He was also the President and went after the KKK.

This is total madness! 

[Ptarmigan]

St. Junipero Serra Statue to Be Removed From California City
https://www.dailysignal.com/2020/06/19/st-junipero-serra-statue-to-be-removed-from-california-city/

The statue of a Roman Catholic saint, Junipero Serra, will be removed from public display over accusations that statues of the missionary reflect oppression of indigenous peoples, according to city officials.

The mayor of Ventura, California, representatives from the Barbareno/Venureno Band of Mission Indians, and a pastor of the Mission San Buenaventura issued a joint statement agreeing to take down a bronzed, 9-foot statue of Serra and have it “moved to a more appropriate non-public location” on Thursday, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The statue currently stands with his back to the Ventura City Hall and facing the Pacific Ocean.

“I always knew that this moment, despite all the issues our people have faced, would happen,” Chief Julie Tumamait Stenslie of the Barbareño/Venureño Band told the LA Times. “We’re constantly fighting to correct our history, and if there was ever a time to speak up, the time was now.”

He was canonized by Pope Francis.

Serra, a Franciscan monk credited for spreading Catholicism in the western United States, founded 9 of the 21 missions along the coast of California beginning in 1769 and was canonized a saint by Pope Francis in 2015. He was the first Catholic saint to be canonized on U.S. soil.

Serra “sought to defend the dignity of the native community, to protect it from those who had mistreated and abused it,” the pope said during the Washington, D.C., canonization service.

Catholics have praised Serra for his dedication to evangelizing the indigenous peoples of California and for pushing back against the treatment Spanish soldiers showed to the native people, but critics accused him of pushing native tribes to abandon their cultures by converting to Catholicism. Some criticized Serra for being “complicit” in “the brutal and dehumanizing conquest of native tribes in California.”

Serra has also been accused of introducing foreign diseases to indigenous tribes and forcing tribes to build the missions, according to the LA Times.

More madness in California! 

[Ptarmigan]

Why Francis Scott Key is targeted?

Where’s the Debate on Francis Scott Key’s Slave-Holding Legacy?
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/wheres-debate-francis-scott-keys-slave-holding-legacy-180959550/

Every 4th of July, I ask my family to sit down in front of the radio as if we’re tuning in to one of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Fireside Chats, the nationally broadcasted speeches the 32nd president made between 1933 and 1934. Ours is a family tradition of listening while National Public Radio personalities recite the Declaration of Independence.

Though the exercise works better in my head than it does in practice—it is always a challenge to get my nine- and six-year kids to sit quietly on a day promising parades and fireworks—I never fail to get something out of the experience.

And I think my children do as well.

We take a bit of time to contemplate the words and ideals that defined the nation. Something about paying attention solely to spoken words for a few minutes provokes deep discussion.

Francis Scott Key owned slaves. It was legal to own slaves in the 18th and 19th century and was abolished in 1865 through the 13th Amendment.