Mayor Marty Walsh, who designated racism as a public health crisis in the city of Boston, is in favor of removing a statue of Lincoln that has stood for over 100 years in the city's Park Square. Walsh's office told the Boston Globe last week that it hopes to recommission that statue into one that "recognizes equality" and is investigating what processes the city would need to undergo to remove it.
The statue depicts Lincoln with one arm extended above a freed slave with broken shackles, symbolizing that, by Lincoln's hand, the institution of slavery was broken. The inscription on the statue reads, "A race set free and the country at peace. Lincoln rests from his labors."
However, activist Tory Bullock launched a petition to remove the Emancipation Memorial, which has garnered over 8,000 signatures and brought local attention to the statue.
"If he's free why is he still on his knees?" Bullock wrote in a description of the petition. "No kid should have to ask themselves that question anymore. If you feel the same then sign the petition!"
"It says it's a statue that's supposed to represent freedom. But, to me, it represents submissiveness," Bullock told WCVB 5 News. "It represents, 'Know your place, because that's where you belong.'"
Protests have erupted across the nation since the death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, in Minneapolis, on Memorial Day. Police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes, while Floyd lay unresponsive on the ground for more than two minutes. Floyd was pronounced dead at a hospital.
In some cases, riots, looting, and arson have occurred within the orbit of protests over police brutality. Monuments in Washington, D.C., including the Lincoln Memorial and World War II Memorial, have been vandalized.
Comment: These fanatics are reviving the spirit of Mao's Cultural Revolution where history can be replaced by any idiotic interpretation that turns reality upside down. Nothing is off limits, even the actual battles fought against slavery.