lilithu
The Devil's Advocate
Had meant to post this a coupla days ago. (I see it's up on Philocrites.org. 
)
I especially liked the comment "Californians who aren't students in the GTU no longer know who he was and Unitarian Universalists don't have the clout to defend him." Amen my brotha.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/05/us/05statue.html?ex=1315108800&en=3f1eab754f23dc72&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss
Reagan Wins Another Vote, to a Place in Congress
By JESSE McKINLEY
Published: September 5, 2006
SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 4 No one would ever have mistaken Thomas Starr King for a Democrat. A fiery Republican clergyman with an oratorical flair, King stood shoulder to shoulder with Lincoln during the Civil War, barnstorming California to preach the gospel of unity when the nation had split apart and secessionist feeling here was high as well.
This statue of Thomas Starr King, a Civil War ally of Lincoln, will be removed from the Capitol in favor of one depicting Ronald Reagan.
Politicians, however, are nothing if not fickle in their affections. So it was that last week the California Legislature, at the behest of a Republican lawmaker, decided that a statue of King should be replaced in the National Statuary Hall at the United States Capitol by one of a more modern Republican with a similar gift for public speaking: Ronald Reagan.
The measure, which passed nearly unanimously just before the end of the legislative session on Thursday night, was hailed by State Senator Dennis Hollingsworth, its Republican author, as a fitting nod to the Great Communicator.
We have a lot of tributes that are existing and to come for Ronald Reagan, said Mr. Hollingsworth, from Murrieta, between Los Angeles and San Diego. But this is Californias contribution.
Yet among those who remember Kings deeds admittedly a select lot there were hurt feelings.
I find it very sad, said Glenna Matthews, a King biographer and visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley. The whole idea of patriotic Republicans wanting to bump a patriotic Republican is trashing what historys all about.
A field trip mainstay, the statuary hall was founded by Congress in 1864 the year King died of diphtheria at 39 with a simple plan: invite each state to place statues of two of its notable citizens at the Capitol. For decades the states did just that, gradually building a collection of Americans both nationally famous (like Sam Houston and Stephen F. Austin, the Texas twosome) and less so (Jabez Lamar Monroe Curry, an educator from Alabama).
Then, in 2000, Congress enacted a little-noticed law allowing legislatures to replace statues from their states. Three years later, Kansas became the first to junk one, replacing a marble depiction of George Washington Glick, a former governor known, according to the halls Web site, for his reassessment of tax laws, and the establishment of a livestock sanitary commission, with a more sporty bronze of Dwight D. Eisenhower. (All sculptures must be either bronze or marble.)
Mr. Hollingsworth said that when he visited the hall last year, during the events surrounding President Bushs second inauguration, he was surprised to learn that King was representing his state, along with the missionary Junipero Serra.
To be honest with you, I wasnt sure who Thomas Starr King was, he said. And I think theres probably a lot of Californians like me.
For Kings successor, of course, there is no problem with name recognition or, in many cases, rename recognition. Owing in part to the conservative strategist Grover Norquists effort to have a project in every state named for Reagan, there is a Ronald Reagan Trail in Illinois, his native state, as well as a Ronald Reagan Highway in Ohio, the aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan and Ronald Reagan National Airport outside Washington.
But Mr. Hollingsworth said those tributes did not sufficiently address his states role in the story of the only California governor to become president.
I think its obvious from his accomplishments that hes not just one of the greatest presidents weve ever had, Mr. Hollingsworth said, but one of the greatest governors.
Ms. Matthews, however, points out that King had a few things to be proud of, too, including a cadre of famous friends, among them Ralph Waldo Emerson and Oliver Wendell Holmes, and an impassioned spirit that helped him raise more than $1 million for pro-Union causes and the Sanitary Commission, a Red Cross precursor that cared for wounded soldiers.
Kings statue, a bronze, will not just be tossed, however. Mr. Hollingsworth said the plan was to take it to the State Capitol in Sacramento, a move that he thinks may raise Kings profile.
I think its time Thomas Starr King be learned about and be able to be a part of the history lessons of kids that come to Sacramento, he said. And this provides more opportunity to do that.
)I especially liked the comment "Californians who aren't students in the GTU no longer know who he was and Unitarian Universalists don't have the clout to defend him." Amen my brotha.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/05/us/05statue.html?ex=1315108800&en=3f1eab754f23dc72&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss
Reagan Wins Another Vote, to a Place in Congress
By JESSE McKINLEY
Published: September 5, 2006
SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 4 No one would ever have mistaken Thomas Starr King for a Democrat. A fiery Republican clergyman with an oratorical flair, King stood shoulder to shoulder with Lincoln during the Civil War, barnstorming California to preach the gospel of unity when the nation had split apart and secessionist feeling here was high as well.
This statue of Thomas Starr King, a Civil War ally of Lincoln, will be removed from the Capitol in favor of one depicting Ronald Reagan.
Politicians, however, are nothing if not fickle in their affections. So it was that last week the California Legislature, at the behest of a Republican lawmaker, decided that a statue of King should be replaced in the National Statuary Hall at the United States Capitol by one of a more modern Republican with a similar gift for public speaking: Ronald Reagan.
The measure, which passed nearly unanimously just before the end of the legislative session on Thursday night, was hailed by State Senator Dennis Hollingsworth, its Republican author, as a fitting nod to the Great Communicator.
We have a lot of tributes that are existing and to come for Ronald Reagan, said Mr. Hollingsworth, from Murrieta, between Los Angeles and San Diego. But this is Californias contribution.
Yet among those who remember Kings deeds admittedly a select lot there were hurt feelings.
I find it very sad, said Glenna Matthews, a King biographer and visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley. The whole idea of patriotic Republicans wanting to bump a patriotic Republican is trashing what historys all about.
A field trip mainstay, the statuary hall was founded by Congress in 1864 the year King died of diphtheria at 39 with a simple plan: invite each state to place statues of two of its notable citizens at the Capitol. For decades the states did just that, gradually building a collection of Americans both nationally famous (like Sam Houston and Stephen F. Austin, the Texas twosome) and less so (Jabez Lamar Monroe Curry, an educator from Alabama).
Then, in 2000, Congress enacted a little-noticed law allowing legislatures to replace statues from their states. Three years later, Kansas became the first to junk one, replacing a marble depiction of George Washington Glick, a former governor known, according to the halls Web site, for his reassessment of tax laws, and the establishment of a livestock sanitary commission, with a more sporty bronze of Dwight D. Eisenhower. (All sculptures must be either bronze or marble.)
Mr. Hollingsworth said that when he visited the hall last year, during the events surrounding President Bushs second inauguration, he was surprised to learn that King was representing his state, along with the missionary Junipero Serra.
To be honest with you, I wasnt sure who Thomas Starr King was, he said. And I think theres probably a lot of Californians like me.
For Kings successor, of course, there is no problem with name recognition or, in many cases, rename recognition. Owing in part to the conservative strategist Grover Norquists effort to have a project in every state named for Reagan, there is a Ronald Reagan Trail in Illinois, his native state, as well as a Ronald Reagan Highway in Ohio, the aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan and Ronald Reagan National Airport outside Washington.
But Mr. Hollingsworth said those tributes did not sufficiently address his states role in the story of the only California governor to become president.
I think its obvious from his accomplishments that hes not just one of the greatest presidents weve ever had, Mr. Hollingsworth said, but one of the greatest governors.
Ms. Matthews, however, points out that King had a few things to be proud of, too, including a cadre of famous friends, among them Ralph Waldo Emerson and Oliver Wendell Holmes, and an impassioned spirit that helped him raise more than $1 million for pro-Union causes and the Sanitary Commission, a Red Cross precursor that cared for wounded soldiers.
Kings statue, a bronze, will not just be tossed, however. Mr. Hollingsworth said the plan was to take it to the State Capitol in Sacramento, a move that he thinks may raise Kings profile.
I think its time Thomas Starr King be learned about and be able to be a part of the history lessons of kids that come to Sacramento, he said. And this provides more opportunity to do that.
