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re: Sully statue to remain
Posted on 1/28/21 at 2:21 am to EKG
Posted on 1/28/21 at 2:21 am to EKG
quote:and so are/were their actions
They’re part of history, whether you and/or I like them or not.
i agree that we should not be doing away with 100+ year old statues of historical figures. i also believe that we should be having open conversations about the things they did in their lives and how we should view them. we shouldnt get rid of sullys statue, but we should be telling sullys full story. the good and the bad. and he had both as everyone does. he did great things for our university. he also did some truly deplorable and heinous things that shouldnt be glossed over
This post was edited on 1/28/21 at 2:23 am
3
Posted on 1/28/21 at 9:09 am to WestCoastAg
quote:What are these deplorable and heinous things?
(Sully) did some truly deplorable and heinous things that shouldn't be glossed over
Hell, he admitted the first female student at TAMU. Personally, I consider that a Good Thing on the scales of life.
The man was raised in the North. Neither he nor his family ever owned a slave, as far as I have been able to determine.
He fought for his adopted state at a time when most considered allegiance to state more important than allegiance to the central government. The unit under his command won a big battle at Yazoo City in which they killed a lot of enemy soldiers. I see no problem with that. Killing the enemy is what soldiers DO ... unless many of those enemy soldiers happen to be Black, apparently. In that case, you should allow the enemy to kill you. Then you will not be "heinous."
OK, that was a bit tongue-in-cheek, but what were these "heinous things" that Sully did? I am genuinely curious.
This post was edited on 1/28/21 at 9:32 am
Posted on 1/28/21 at 10:15 am to WestCoastAg
quote:
we shouldnt get rid of sullys statue, but we should be telling sullys full story.
Ironically, it's because Sully's "full story" was being told that the whole brouhaha gained steam. The "Brigadier General, CSA" line has ALWAYS been on his plaque in Academic plaza (every fish in the Corps memorizes it--hell, my dad taught it to me when I was in grade school, actually
), some folks just didn't bother to pay attention/take offense to it until relatively recently. Good and bad to the man, like you said. Like any human who'll ever be enshrined in granite or marble (Abraham Lincoln's views on interracial relations or Martin Luther King's views on homosexuality would land them in hot water today). For his era, though, he was considered progressive, and an ally to minority and coed education, and was pivotal in the survival of TAMU. So yeah, you're right, a holistic conversation needs to be encouraged--definitely not an expungement for nascent sensibilities.
Posted on 1/28/21 at 10:19 am to WestCoastAg
quote:
i also believe that we should be having open conversations about the things they did in their lives and how we should view them. we shouldnt get rid of sullys statue, but we should be telling sullys full story. the good and the bad. and he had both as everyone does. he did great things for our university. he also did some truly deplorable and heinous things that shouldnt be glossed over
First, most of the accusations toward Sul Ross are just not true. He didn’t slaughter a bunch of black people in the civil war for instance, he and his troops defeated an opposing army regimen that happened to include many black soldiers. It’s war, people die.
Second, it is folly to judge men and women of the past by our modern moral standards. This forces us to call nearly every human who ever lived an immoral monster. Moreover, using the same logic, imagine what people a hundred years from now will think of you?
There are people whose evil is universal and crosses all times and locales. But the majority of people are simply products of when and where they lived.
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