Name:   phil - Subject:   Speaking of Lenin Date:   8/22/2017 9:34:27 AM

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/08/19/in-seattle-people-are-protesting-monuments-to-the-confederacy-and-communism/?utm_term=.602d11abe939

statue for sale - $250,000, is privately owned and not on public property - so I can care less - maybe Archie can take up a collection from GFY and CrapperTime and have it put in his back yard overlooking his back fence where his African American neightbor lives that he is not afraid of.

On Thursday, Mayor Ed Murray joined critics in seeking the removal of a monument that has long been a subject of curiosity and controversy, saying the deadly violence last weekend in Charlottesville should serve as incentive to remove all symbols of racism and hatred, “no matter what political affiliation may have been assigned to them.”

Murray, a Democrat, also has taken aim at a Confederate memorial in the city’s Lake View Cemetery. Both are privately owned.

“We should never forget our history,” he wrote in a prepared statement, “but we also should not idolize figures who have committed violent atrocities and sought to divide us based on who we are or where we came from.”

It was created in Slovakia by artist Emil Venkov between 1978 and 1988, when it was installed in the city of Poprad, not far from the Polish border. A year later, as the Soviet Union broke apart, the statue was taken down.

It was discovered in a junkyard by Lewis Carpenter, an American visiting from Washington state, who was said to be so enamored with its artistry that he leveraged his mortgage to finance the purchase and ship it home to Issaquah, 20 miles east of the Seattle. It was moved to Fremont after Carpenter’s death in 1994 (Venkov died in June) and now occupies a small parcel maintained by the local business community.

Carpenter’s family still owns the statue and, according to the Seattle Times, has been hoping to sell it for many years. The asking price is $250,000.

The statue is a fixture in their community, one they festoon with holiday lights each December. It’s “tangible proof,” Fremont residents explain on their website, “that art does outlive politics.”

Here’s more:

“If art is supposed to make us feel, not just feel good, then this sculpture is a successful work of art. The challenge is to understand that this piece means different things to different people and to learn to listen to each other and respect different opinions. From an artist’s standpoint, all points of view are valid and important.”

Makes sense to me - Liberals / Progressives think that "art" outweighs evil, at least the mayor would like for both monuments to come down - unlike the local business community who maintains Lenin and lovingly wraps him with Christmas lights each year, where commenters from the Area claim it does not honor Lenin or Communism but is the subject of ridicule in front of a fish taco restaurant in a whacky neighborhood.