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Time for report about another culture war battle that just flared up.
This time not current titanic struggle concerning fate of all mankind, but small reminiscence of another titanic struggle of remote past.
On May 1, New Hampshire Department of Natural & Cultural Resources unveiled in town of Concord new memorial marker honoring famous daughter of the city, one Elizabeth Gurley Flynn.
EGF was famous woman in her time, her adventurous life culminated in position of first chairwoman of Communist Party USA and after her death she was honored with official state funeral at Red Square.
It is easy to understand why many people are not amused with this decision.
...
So far, this stays local teapot tempest, blame game going between the state and the city, but it can easily escalate into major Culture War battle, it could take only some national right wing politicians or influencers take notice.
Concord better get ready for long hot summer of battles between red hat crowds trying to tear down the sign and black flag ones trying to defend it.
We had on this forum long and hard debates about historical statues and memorials, Confederate in the US, colonialist and slave trader in the UK, Soviet and Czarist in Eastern Europe, both debates about who deserves to be publicly honored and meta debates about who deserves to decide who gets to be publicly honored.
My take? If there is any issue fit for democratic decision of the people, it is exactly this one. Let people, actual people of the city, debate and vote who deserves to be memorialized.
If the citizens want statue of Czar, Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Satan or Nathan Bedford Forrest on their town square, it is their choice and no one else.
I didn't even understand this post at first, thinking a "marker" was something like a honorary statue. It's just a small plaque describing her life. From reading it, it's mostly rather neutral in tone except for the single mention of the Smith Act being "notorious". You could argue though that it is deceptive since it leaves out many of her worst associations though.
I'm hardly a fan of communism and looking at her life also not a particular fan of her, but she is certainly a notable person. Having a sign "this notable person was born here and is notable for X" seems totally appropriate. Given what other posters here write about her, the text should certainly be more critical, but I don't think having such a sign up is at all an insult to anyone, not even patriots. Ironically you could argue that communists should be offended, since the sign clearly tries to minimize all her communist affiliations, only mentioning that she joined the party at one point.
This is not the standard used for signs about people who the left is hostile to.
Yes, erasing people from history is a typical communist move. That's why you shouldn't do it, even to communists.
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