In Orange, Texas, the Texas Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans just built a large Confederate memorial park, complete with a classical-ish monument featuring 13 columns—one for each of the states in the short-lived, and utterly defeated, Confederate States of America. [...]
And this being Confederate sympathizers, they did not hesitate to build the memorial where the highway meets Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.
— citylab.com
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Who designed it?
Oh FFS. When I was 19 I bought into the idea that this flag could be read as a symbol of "heritage and tradition" or whatever. By the time I was 20 I saw that I was wrong. Are there no adults in Texas?
At least it was constructed in the right state; traitors.
There are adults in Texas. It's a huge state. Unfortunately, some of our adults do ridiculous, horrendous, embarrassing things like this.
For the most part, I'm proud to be from Texas. But, things like this make me feel ashamed. This is the last thing I would want someone to associate with the place I was raised...
I know what you mean, Ross. I'm surrounded by people who embarrass me in my adopted state of Indiana, too. <sigh>
Having grown up in and near Orange, this news is deeply embarrassing to me. I think it should be mentioned that this was built by a private citizen on private property, so there was really nothing the local government could do to prevent it.
That being said, there are several questions that come to my mind. Could the city of Orange (assuming the project is in the city limits) have prevented this by refusing to issue a building permit? Who designed this project? It's conceivable there was no architect involved, but what about a civil engineer? Structural engineer? Landscape architect? Somebody's seal must be on the permit drawings. Perhaps Archinect or CityLab could make an open records request to learn which design professionals are responsible for this garbage.
as per wikipedia "The U.S. state of Texas declared its secession from the United States of America on February 1, 1861, and joined the Confederate States on March 2, 1861, after it replaced its governor, Sam Houston, when he refused to take an oath of allegiance to the Confederacy. " then it reads Texas' main role was supplying horses....
Houston, got an entire city, some universities...
that's one ugly guitar.
thanks, new urbanism. now you need to admit your racist agenda, duany.
#modernismmatters
Does anyone else see the irony in the faux old paper...old looking paper printed from a 21st century printer via 21 century computer...Like the old looking building in the render that will be made from Chinese Styrofoam...Haha...FAIL...matches well with their faux confederate flag probably also made in China... and overall faux civil war persona they enjoy projecting upon themselves when in reality most people today would shit their pants if they had to actually fight in a war with a musket and sword...weak fake ass pussified gmo corn fed sissy men with steel truck nuts and shriveled up real nuts relishing in an era that they would likely be too scared to actually participate in. Get over it...The war is over...Do what you do best and go fuck your cousin you racist scum...
"thanks, new urbanism. now you need to admit your racist agenda, duany."
What??? What does this have to do with NU and Andres Duany?
My take? I think the Confederate flag is the source of pride in heritage for some people, and that pride, for many, has nothing to do with racism. It's a reductivist oversimplification to say that the Confederacy was solely about slavery - and it's reductivist and false to think that "Southern pride" is necessarily racist. There were of course many other factors which led to succession, including the South feeling that they were looked down upon by the Northern states, and taken advantage upon politically and economically. Many of these grievances were legitimate.
However, the flag has become such a symbol of hatred and discrimination that it is forever tainted, and it really needs to go. This cannot be avoided any longer.
source of pride? a bunch of rich white guys tried to take over the country and failed.
remind you of anything? like a bunch of tea partiers who failed to build stronger communities, failed to pass a reasonable budget, failed to keep government running. we got to see some great attempts at filibustering, which ultimately failed to produce anything. lots of talk of how they want to fail to repeal obamacare again and again.
sure, there are a bunch of old white guys who pride themselves on being failures. i figured the support for the flag was because it was another symbol of the neo-conservative culture of failure.
@EKE, just to be clear the Civil War was about slavery. Those arguing otherwise need to bone up on their history or are Southern apologists... See here or better here for starters.
And in terms of the reverence for the flag/aka Southern Pride
it is important to note that the incorporation of the Confederate battle flag into Southern state flags and flying it at capitol buildings isn't some relic of the post-Civil War days. It's quite new. In most cases it goes back a little over 50 years to the 1950s and early 1960s. In other words, the prominent public display of the flag (if not the popularity of the flag itself, though partly that too) doesn't commemorate the Civil War or the Confederacy, it was the emblem of the 'massive resistance' movement of the 1950s and 1960s in which white Southern state government sought to defy the federal government's effort to force desegration, black enfranchisement and formal legal and political equality for African-Americans on the South.
on the off chance that anyone ever takes me seriously, hi eke! - it was a joke.
like calling modernism alien architecture of nihilism.
fucking ugly guitar.
now if it were a bit cubism-y I might reconsider
You are wrong, Nam. Slavery was the major issue, and certainly the one with the most moral and political import, and certainly the one that resonates the most with us in modern times, because it's pernicious legacy is still felt today. But it was by no means the only issue.
As I said, Nam, I think the Confederate Battle Flag has become such a dreadful symbol of hatred for so many that it should be banished from the public sphere.
And that memorial is awful.
The war was about money...slaves were the means to it...Poor white people in the south died to protect the wealthy owner class. Kind of like all the wars ever. No idea why poor-middle class whites in the south would support the symbol of that system in 2015...Racist and Stupid are the 2 most likely reasons.
I'm sorry EKE, but I'll have to agree with Nam. Slavery was the whole reason for secession as explicitly stated by all the leaders of the south at the time, because as jla-x said, it was all about the economy. The confederacy was predicated on the notion that whites where superior to blacks, because how else to justify the cruelty and savagery of their society< They might have hung other crap on it to soften the vulgarity or widen the justification, but the south was half the country in George Washington's time. No way they would have advocated for the dissolution of something so wonderful (the union), and so central to their history if not for something so irreconcilable as slavery. And all for some dollar bills!
That being said, the south has contributed to so much of America's culture and heritage, that they have a wealth of riches to celebrate besides a bunch of greedy land owners intent on subverting the very principles their own forefathers fought so bravely for. I say, chin-up the south. By going on about this flag being part of their heritage, it's like spitting in the face of all those fellow "non-citizens", aka the slaves. They where southern too. Do they get to talk about southern heritage?
so put a jack daniels flag up or a nascar flag instead of the flag that symbolizes a bunch of rich white guys that felt they needed to own other people....
I didn't say the war wasn't about slavery. It was about slavery, intertwined in a complex and toxic political, social and economic stew.
Slavery is a pernicious evil, and the flag is emblematic of that for most citizens today. Good riddance.
Texas has their own insane state pride. Not sure why this is even a thing since they played no role in the confederacy. If it's on private land the owner can pretty much do what they want, just another idiot with too much land and money to burn.
Meanwhile these assholes....
"Proud of your ancestors?", really? I love history and I respect my ancestors but, each region has history that they are ashamed of. No, I am not proud that Texas seceded from the union so they could continue making a profit from using the free labor of slaves. As a Texan, myself, I never even see the Confederate flag around texas like some of the other Southern states, except for the occasional display of the six flags of Texas at government and tourist sites. I don't know why you would even have this memorial in Texas. Honestly the flag represents, slavery, greed, and failure and I am not sure why any Southern state wants a reminder of their dark history. You don't see Italy or Germany waving their Fascist flags around to support their history. I can respect that some people want to keep the flag around because their ancestors fought in the war and it shows the turning point, where slavery was eventually abolished completely, however making a monument of it supporting the Confederate Union and in Texas, who played little in the war, is ridiculous.
Agree. The right place for the confederate battle flag is a museum.
I think I have a solution. Maybe this section of I-10 is due for a highway beautification project. You know, with lush landscaping and some tall trees with dense canopies. Maybe even a 20-ft tall wall to protect visitors to the memorial from the harsh freeway noise.
Gus McCrae in Lonesome Dove said all that need to be said about this:
"Must be Texans — lowest form of white man there is."
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