A Long Island town says it will gladly welcome the latest potential victims of New York City’s cancel culture: statues of historical figures such as George Washington and Christopher Columbus.
Brookhaven officials said they have already chosen locations for the statues and will cover the cost of dismantling and shipping them.
“You know, I didn’t want to comment on whether that was right or wrong because it’s a city decision. But I said, ‘If you’re going to do that, hey, we’ll take the statues,’” Town Supervisor Edward Romaine told The Post on Tuesday.
Referring to historical figures once sacred and now considered controversial by supposed “woke” enemies, 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 would appreciate having those statues.”
The city’s offer comes a day after The Post reported that the Democratic-led New York City Council was introducing a proposal to remove any statues and other artwork depicting figures from Big Apple properties. with controversial pasts. For example, Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Peter Stuyvesant owned slaves, and Columbus has been accused of cruelly treating Native Americans.
Brookhaven, LI, has offered to pay to pack up unwanted statues of New York City historical figures, such as Thomas Jefferson, and move them to city parks. Gregorio P. Mango
Brookhaven has between 20 and 25 parks, and New York City statues, such as those of George Washington, could easily be moved there to “receive the respect they deserve,” Long Island City officials say.Getty Images
Critics have called the takedown effort cancel culture gone mad.
In a letter sent Tuesday to the city’s mayor, Eric Adams, Romaine detailed how important some of the historical figures are to the Brookhaven community, from Washington touring the city after the Revolutionary War to founding father William Floyd calling the place your home.
“The Brookhaven Town Board knows the importance of our history in bringing us to the place we are today,” the letter says. “If we look through our eyes today and try to judge them by what they did years ago, as some people do, we will get a different view. “I look at their contribution to history in general, I look at what they have done.”
It is unclear how the proposal being considered by the New York City Council could affect the statue of Christopher Columbus in Manhattan’s famous Columbus Circle. SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
Brookhaven has between 20 and 25 parks, and Romaine said displaying the statues there means they “could get the respect they deserve.”
Romaine said the city would also pay to transport the statues to their new home “because we still understand that history is a long arc.”
During Tuesday’s public hearing before the City Council’s Cultural Affairs Committee, the bill’s author, Councilwoman Sandy Nurse (D-Brooklyn), insisted that she is trying to correct history, not cancel it.
A statue of George Washington in Union Square Park in Manhattan could be threatened by a “woke” plan. Angel Chevrest
He said he wants the city’s Public Design Commission to consider removing the statues from the public square because of their controversial legacies related to slavery or the mistreatment of indigenous people. The PDC could also install plaques next to the statutes explaining the honoree’s misdeeds.
“It’s a recognition of the historic injustices that continue to plague our cities,” Nurse said.
Additional reporting by Carl Campanile
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Source: vtt.edu.vn