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SLO Mayor Harmon leads ban on monuments that honor people

July 20, 2019

Mayor Heidi Harmon

Following objections lodged by San Luis Obispo Mayor Heidi Harmon to a proposed monument honoring President Teddy Roosevelt, the SLO City Council decided on Tuesday to adopt a new policy mandating that monuments honor ideas, rather than people. [Cal Coast Times]

Last year, former SLO councilman John Ashbaugh spearheaded a campaign to honor Roosevelt, the United States’ 26th president, for helping to launch the conservation movement and for once visiting San Luis Obispo. Ashbaugh’s plan called for a bronze statue of Roosevelt by Artist Paula Zima to be placed in Mitchell Park.

Harmon initially responded by questioning why there was a need for more monuments of white men. Harmon suggested there is a nationwide problem in the United States related to racist and sexist monuments.

At Tuesday’s meeting, Harmon said monuments have become controversial and violence has broken out over the maintenance of certain monuments. Harmon also claimed that any person who is worthy of a monument would not actually want to be honored with one.

During the hearing, the council discussed changes to the city public art policy and ultimately decided to direct staff to draft new regulations, which include the mandate that monuments honor ideas, rather than people. Only Councilwoman Carlyn Christianson was opposed to the proposed public art policy changes.

However, numerous members of the public have criticized the Harmon-led effort to ban monuments honoring people. Critics have argued that people should be remembered despite their flaws and that it is possible to erect monuments without promoting racism or sexism.

The public art policy changes will return to the city council at a later date for formal approval.


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As soon as mankind could shape the image of a person, in clay, marble, bronze, etc. it began erecting statues of important citizens. Go to any European country and you will see statuary of any number of people. One Chinese emperor left behind an entire army of statues depicting his loyal soldiers. Teddy Roosevelt is obviously an outstanding choice for a statue. Despite being a “white man” he was successful in several “progressive” activities such as breaking up corporate monopolies—think Standard Oil—that hindered the growth of the middle class. We very much need somebody like TR today so I can see absolutely no reason why a statue of the man would somehow be controversial.


28

Well, he was a white guy and he liked to hunt. He understood that hunting was actually good for the environment.


11

Monuments to ideas? How’s that supposed to work? Get ready for a bunch of ugly artworks, unrecognizable abstract crap dedicated to ideals and applauded by scatter brains like the mayor.


35

How about the Statue of Liberty as an example for you?


She’s not real…. she’s symbolic. What SHE stands for are some pretty darn good ideas. Don’t you think?


5

Here’s another; the Washington Monument.


According to National Parks..”the Washington Monument embodies the awe, respect, and gratitude the nation felt for its most essential Founding Father.” An Egyptian obelisk—go figure.


Liberal subversive artisans in the 1850’s were already hard at work.


0

Such as the hammer and sickle at marsh and Higuera


10

What “Progressive” really means I’m SLO:

It’s when facism is fashionable.


29

Well at least we won’t be saddled with a monument to RuPaul….


32

Hey…. I have an idea. Circulate a petition to make Harmon a public work of “art”…..and then ban her. That would be honoring an idea who’s time has come.


53

Slosum you read my mind! I say we start today!


28

Great, what do i do with the statue of Che Guevara I’ve been working on?


24

Hang it upside down?


17

All the City Council majority cares about is checking off boxes on its virtue signalling checklist. Then they can go on taxpayer-funded trips to city council conventions and compare their progressive credentials to the other cities. Winner gets a tofookie.


No monuments to dead white men? Check.

No plastic straws? Check.

Female police chief who loses her evil gun? Check.

Bums sleeping on every corner? Check.

Ban natural gas in new houses? Check.

Rename manholes to “maintenance portals”? Check.

Install roundabouts at every intersection? Check.


Watch for the upcoming changes in traffic light colors. Red, yellow, and green are not calming, so we’re going to pink, canary, and seafoam.


72

Yup! But ……


….Why, when, and how did policies so regressive that they enslave people as of old, come to be called “progressive”??????


I refuse to let my enemies bamboozle me into using the opposite word for what they’re doing. SLO gov tyrants can call themselves “progressives” but I know they’re Regressives.


29

It’s sort of spin idea on that quote of Gobbels:“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”


3

Lol. I like that traffic light color idea..


9

best comment


3

I still can’t believe how stupid the people of SLO are to have voted for this joke of a mayor in the first place.


48

So now we legislate and set public policy not to offend. What if ideas that are made into monuments offend people? The right to life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness and to never have ones feelings hurt.


36
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