More Evidence We Live in a Sick, Sick World:

[calvindog]

I had a criminal case in NY once in which a WWII statue was stolen and the thieves chopped it up and tried to sell the scrap. Naturally, the scrap was worth next to nothing; all the value of the statue was in the art. When they finally made an arrest it turned out that it was a group of Mexican illegals who spoke no English and had no idea what they had stolen and destroyed. One of their bosses paid me to get them out of the mess they found themselves in, which I did.

Every act doesn’t have to be for political purposes; some people are just idiots who do stupid things. Similarly, trying to score cheap political points over this is idiotic. We can all agree that Jackie Robinson was a great man, no one disputes this. And Robinson brought people together, instead of dividing them. Maybe we can try that here.

[Exhibitman]

Originally Posted by calvindog

some people are just idiots who do stupid things.

Which is why you and I have businesses

[calvindog]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

Which is why you and I have businesses

I thank God for stupid people every day.

[judsonhamlin]

Originally Posted by calvindog

I thank God for stupid people every day.

Yup. Saved me from a career of real estate closings…

[Exhibitman]

Originally Posted by judsonhamlin

Yup. Saved me from a career of real estate closings…

I’ve done them. They are low stress but rather boring.

[GasHouseGang]

This incident got so much notice because it was a Jackie Robinson statue. This sort of thing has been happening all over. This was recently reported in Los Angeles:

On Jan. 11, vandals robbed Lincoln Memorial of more than 100 bronze plaques, including one donated by champion boxer Joe Louis in 1949, according to Woods, one of the volunteers who run the cemetery. It is the second cemetery thieves have recently targeted in the Carson-Compton area, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

The estimated damage and cost of the missing plaques is upwards of $2 million, according to the Sheriff’s Department.

A week before the incident at Lincoln Memorial, thieves targeted the adjacent Woodlawn Memorial Park. As of Jan. 9, they had identified nearly 300 graves that had been vandalized; headstones on 92 in-ground graves had been knocked over and smashed and more than 200 plaques had been removed from mausoleum walls.

The Sheriff’s Department will also investigate claims by residents that a third cemetery, the Angeles Abbey Memorial Park in Compton, also has been vandalized. An employee at Angeles Abbey declined to comment.

Lt. Vincent Ursini of the Sheriff’s Department Major Crimes Bureau said authorities have not yet identified suspects but are chasing leads and reviewing security footage.

“It’s a sad state of affairs when you’re in your final resting spot and you can’t even rest in peace without somebody smashing your tombstone to get the metal off,” he said.

[BobbyStrawberry]

Originally Posted by calvindog

Robinson brought people together, instead of dividing them. Maybe we can try that here.

I understand and respect the point you're trying to make, but saying he "brought people together" is revisionist history. Honoring him now brings most people together, but there are still many, many deeply racist people in this country, some of whom would certainly stoop to stealing and burning a Jackie Robinson statue to make a point. Remember a few years ago how they had to make the Emmett Till memorial in Mississippi bulletproof after it had been riddled with bullet holes over and over again?

[Swadewade51]

Originally Posted by BobbyStrawberry

I understand and respect the point you're trying to make, but saying he "brought people together" is revisionist history. Honoring him now brings most people together, but there are still many, many deeply racist people in this country, some of whom would certainly stoop to stealing and burning a Jackie Robinson statue to make a point. Remember a few years ago how they had to make the Emmett Till memorial in Mississippi bulletproof after it had been riddled with bullet holes over and over again?

+1

Sent from my SM-G970U using Tapatalk

[calvindog]

Originally Posted by BobbyStrawberry

I understand and respect the point you're trying to make, but saying he "brought people together" is revisionist history. Honoring him now brings most people together, but there are still many, many deeply racist people in this country, some of whom would certainly stoop to stealing and burning a Jackie Robinson statue to make a point. Remember a few years ago how they had to make the Emmett Till memorial in Mississippi bulletproof after it had been riddled with bullet holes over and over again?

I don’t think it’s revisionist history. Robinson’s existence in MLB caused many racists to reexamine their previously held positions on Blacks. And eventually Blacks in baseball became commonplace, allowing a once-excluded race access to America’s pastime. I don’t know how a statue today has even a fraction of the impact on race relations as Jackie breaking the color barrier back then did.

And yeah there are still racists in America. That is a fact which will remain regardless of the motive behind the theft of the statue, which still is unknown. The story I recounted in my post was designed to underscore that — when the WW2 statue was stolen it was presumed it was an anti-American statement when in reality it was nothing of the sort.

[Exhibitman]

I agree with Jeff's point on Robinson's effect. Look at what Roger Kahn wrote about the reactions of 'mild' racists on the Dodgers once they saw him in action. He changed a lot of peoples' minds. Happy Chandler supported Dixiecrat segrgationist politics yet within months issued a stern warning letter to the Phillies to stop the racial epithets from the bench.