I’d see him standing on the corner on my way to drop off the 4x5 E-6 sheet film to be processed before heading home. He’d still be standing there in the morning when I picked up the transparencies on my way into work. I would normally plan on seeing him again that evening, because invariably I would need to re-shoot. (Something usually went wrong, a cord would move or the shots were too light or too dark. That’s why I always left the unit and lights in the same position overnight in a corner of the company’s production area.) Part of my job was to take product shots, and I’m not a professional photographer...So I saw a lot of Vlad.
“We won the Cold War Vlad!” I’d think. “You may be 16 feet tall, but now you’re stuck here in Fremont, the neighborhood bills itself as ‘The Center of the Universe’.”
“Weighing over 7 tons, the sculpture took ten years to complete and was installed in Poprad, Slovakia in 1988. It is unique. We believe it is the only representation portraying Lenin surrounded by guns and flames instead of holding a book or waving his hat. The sculptor, while fulfilling the requirements of his state commission, was nevertheless able to express his vision of Lenin as a violent revolutionary; not just an intellectual and theoretician.
Fremont.com
An American veteran teaching in Poprad, Lewis Carpenter, found the sculpture lying face down after it was toppled in the 1989 Revolution. He found it impressive and mortgaged his house to bring it to the Northwest. When he died in 1994, it was installed in the Seattle neighborhood of Fremont temporarily. It’s still there, and is for sale ($250,000 obo).
Like other statues around town, it’s often dressed up in fun to mark various occasions. (In contrast, his hand is often painted red by protesters to represent the “blood on his hands” for the Soviet system that he helped spawn.)
~~~~~
Towns and cities across the country are pulling down Confederate statues and memorials. The pace of proposals and/or removal of these monuments to slavery and white supremacy picked up after the confrontation against Neo-Nazis and the tragedy that occurred in Charlottesville, VA in August.
From Florida to Massachusetts to California these symbols of racial hate masquerading as tributes to fallen soldiers are to be found. Even in my blue city of Seattle, a place barely occupied at the time of the Civil War, there is a memorial to CSA soldiers in one of the city’s original cemeteries, where many of the Seattle founders buried, including some of the “Mercer Girls”…as well as the martial arts star Bruce Lee.
Last month Ed Murray, the mayor at the time (we’re on the 3rd mayor this month…long story) said the monument should go...
“Not only do these kinds of symbols represent historic injustices, their existence causes pain among those who themselves or whose family members have been impacted by these atrocities,” Murray said in the statement. “We should remove all these symbols, no matter what political affiliation may have been assigned to them in the decades since they were erected. This includes both Confederate memorials and statues idolizing the founder of the authoritarian Soviet regime.”
What! I’m totally on board with removing any pieces that glorifies the Confederacy, just get them gone. Please!
But my buddy Vlad too? He fits the vibe of the neighborhood that is Artist’s Republic of Fremont. Let him stay and be ironic.
What do you think? Should he stay or should he go?
Do you have controversial monuments in your town?
Data & Democracy for 2018 conference:
18 speakers (including DKos’s own peregrine kate, navajo, Denise Oliver Velez, Chris Reeves, and myself)
Over 100 attendees
8 very kind volunteers helping out (including DKos’s MsSpentYouth and gordon20024)
Private post-conference dinner for speakers and volunteers at Durham’s wonderful Dos Perros
Bloggers/journos attending include Digby’s Hullabaloo and the Institute for Southern Studies’ indispensable Facing South
Affiliations of attendees include:
- NC Progressive Democratic Caucus
- Progressive Democrats of Orange County
- Institute For Southern Studies
- WCDP Tech Corps
- People's Alliance
- North Carolina State University
- League of Women Voters
- Neighbors On Call
- Washtenaw County (MI) Democratic Party
- CivicRise
- Durham Democratic Women
- Democracy North Carolina
- You Can Vote
- Orange County Democratic Party
- Rise Together NC
- Democratic Women of Guilford County
- Kill The Bill
- Wake Democratic Mens Club
- Southern Coalition for Social Justice
- NAACP
- Everyone's North Carolina
- Now Or Never NC
- Citizens In Action
- Our Shot NC
- Insightus
- Together We Will NC
- Univ of North Carolina Chapel Hill
- Daily Kos
Online registration will close soon, so if you’re coming now’s the time to register. No tickets will be available at the door.
RSVPS
1. peregrine kate
2. randallt
3. joieau
4. Gordon20024
5. Lamont Cranston
6. Otteray Scribe
7.
MAYBEES :
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VIRGINIA KOSSACKS!