A town on Long Island says it will gladly welcome the latest potential victims of New York City’s scrap culture: statues of historical figures like George Washington and Christopher Columbus.
Brookhaven officials said they already have a spot picked out for the statues – and will cover the cost of dismantling and shipping them.
“You know, I don’t want to comment on whether that’s right or wrong because that’s the city’s decision. But I said, ‘If you’re going to do that, hey, we’re going to take the statues,’ ” Town Supervisor Edward Romaine told The Post on Tuesday.
Referring to once-sanctified historical figures now considered controversial by alleged “woke” haters, Romaine said, “We look at their achievements, what they did for their time and how they contributed to the long arc of history.
“And we welcome having those statues.”
The city’s offer comes a day after The Post reported that the Democrat-led New York City Council is proposing to strip Big Apple property of any statues and other artwork depicting figures with controversial histories. For example, Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Peter Stuyvesant owned slaves, and Christopher Columbus has been accused of brutalizing Native Americans.
Brookhaven, LI, has offered to pay to pack up any unwanted statues of New York City historical figures like Thomas Jefferson and move them to a city park. Gregory P. Mango
Brookhaven has 20 to 25 parks, and New York City statues like George Washington could easily be moved there to “get the respect they deserve,” officials in the Long Island city said.Getty Images
Critics have branded the removal effort as a cultural void gone murky.
In a letter to city Mayor Eric Adams on Tuesday, Romaine detailed how important several historical figures have been to the Brookhaven community, from Washington visiting the city after the Revolutionary War to Founding Father William Floyd who called the place home.
“The Brookhaven Town Board recognizes the importance of our history in getting us to where we are today,” the letter said. “If we look through our eyes today and try to judge them for what they did years ago as some people might do, they come with a different view. I see their contribution to history as a whole, I see what they have do.”
It’s unclear how a proposal being weighed by the New York City Council might affect the statue of Christopher Columbus at Manhattan’s famed Columbus Circle. SOPA/LightRocket image via Getty Images
Brookhaven has 20 to 25 parks, and Romaine said displaying the statues there means they “can get the respect they deserve.”
Romaine said the city will also pay to transport the statues to their new homes “because we still understand that history is a long arc.”
During a public hearing Tuesday before the city council’s Cultural Affairs Committee, the bill’s author, Brooklyn Councilwoman Sandy Nurse, insisted she was trying to correct history, not undo it.
A statue of George Washington in Manhattan’s Union Square Park could be threatened by a “woke” plan. Angel Chevrestt
He said he wants the city’s Public Design Commission to consider removing the statues from public squares because of their controversial legacy of slavery or mistreatment of indigenous peoples. The PDC may also install a plaque next to the statute explaining the recipient’s misconduct.
“It’s a reckoning with the historical injustices that continue to haunt our city,” Nurse said.
-Additional reporting by Carl Campanile
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
