[Peace-discuss] Does Urbana courthouse plaza need giant Lincoln head? NO!

[E. Wayne Johnson]

Actually Abraham Lincoln was a racist who took advantage of a popular 
controversy to achieve a
political end.  Lincoln advocated reserving the west of the country for 
whites,
supported a law forbidding black people to settle in Illinois and was 
fond of racist jokes.
He used two State of the Union addresses to call for the deportation of 
black people
and shortly before his assassination in 1865 said of the thousands of 
slaves
to be freed at the end of the Civil War: "I believe it would be better 
to export
them all to some fertile country with a good climate which they could 
have to themselves."

As a politician, Lincoln is the archetype of the coercive power of the
collectivist state over the rights of individuals,
so in that sense it is entirely appropriate for his image
to be worshipped at the local temple of statist power.

On the other hand, the sculpture looks really stupid
and it is another waste of the people's money.

Brian Dolinar wrote:
> How ironic - a huge Disney-like image of Lincoln, the man who "freed 
> the slaves,"
> in front of the courthouse - the modern institution to re-enslave a 
> generation of poor black folks.
>
> BD
>
>
>   The News-Gazette.com
>
>
>     Does Urbana courthouse plaza need giant Lincoln head?
>
>
>           By Paul Wood <http://www.news-gazette.com/news/reporter/pwood/>
>
>
>             Saturday August 23, 2008
>
> Artist Frank Gallo used Photoshop to illustrate his concept for an 
> Abraham Lincoln sculpture outside the Champaign County Courthouse in 
> Urbana.
>
> URBANA – One super-big Lincoln head could be in Urbana's future.
>
> Champaign County Board member Ralph Langenheim, an Urbana Democrat, is 
> promoting a proposed Frank Gallo sculpture for the plaza in front of 
> the Champaign County Courthouse.
>
> Twenty-one feet tall, it would resemble one of the mysterious Easter 
> Island sculptures, only with a stovepipe hat. Rubbing his nose might 
> be a stretch.
>
> Langenheim notes that of all the artists who have passed through 
> Champaign-Urbana or the University of Illinois, only Gallo and Lorado 
> Taft have international reputations.
>
> He acknowledges that when he shows a picture that Gallo has 
> Photoshopped from a Lincoln head he donated to Urbana High School, the 
> usual reaction is shock.
>
> "Every county courthouse in Illinois has a statue in the stylized 
> Lincoln cliche style," Langenheim said. "This would not be one of 
> those. It would attract some pretty strong feelings."
>
> The county board member said people should think in terms of the famed 
> Chicago Picasso sculpture, which was reviled upon its unveiling but 
> now serves a symbol of how Chicago thinks differently.
>
> "This is capable of becoming an iconic thing that would make this 
> community known," Langenheim said.
>
> "I think it would draw attention to Urbana in a way I would rather not 
> draw attention to Urbana," countered Steve Beckett, a fellow Urbana 
> Democrat on the county board.
>
> Beckett, former judge Harold Jensen and UI Professor Bruce Hannon have 
> been leaders in restoring and adding to the courthouse, which is on 
> the same spot as an earlier courthouse where Lincoln practiced law.
>
> Beckett has seen the photo and doesn't think it will fly.
>
> "Public art is one of most difficult issues communities face," he 
> said. "Art is so subjective. What we've been thinking about is how and 
> why Lincoln was in Urbana, as a politician, as a lawyer, as a friend, 
> and this doesn't seem to do it."
>
> Gallo is delighted by strong reactions like Beckett's.
>
> "I want to engage the people who live here, guys like Steve Beckett, 
> and make them confront how they feel about Lincoln, maybe give me some 
> input," the sculptor said.
>
> The head looks enormous in the photo that Gallo produced; it's meant to.
>
> "I wanted to capture the Mount Rushmore feeling: generous, large, 
> significant," he said.
>
> "With the addition of the stovepipe hat, it's even more so."
>
> The sculpture wouldn't look too much like the photo, he said. The face 
> will be younger and beardless, to reflect Lincoln's time here, and the 
> hat would be different. There would be some sort of platform.
>
> Gallo also likes a certain cartoonish aspect he finds in certain 
> Matthew Brady photographs of the Great Emancipator.
>
> Lincoln had a number of different looks, he said, "not just the one 
> you see at every county courthouse."
>
> He thinks the courthouse is the perfect setting.
>
> "Every time I drive by and look at this empty plaza, I see this giant 
> head.
>
> "And let's put a hat on him," Gallo said.
>
> -- 
> Brian Dolinar, Ph.D.
> 303 W. Locust St.
> Urbana, IL 61801
> briandolinar at gmail.com <mailto:briandolinar at gmail.com>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
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