Houston man tries to bomb Confederate statue: gets caught

DIck Dowling was a bit more than just a Confederate officer, sure he fought at the second battle of Sabine Pass and that's what he's most well known for, but he was also an immigrant from Ireland who was a prominent businessman in his adopted home town of Houston and was one of the founders of the HFD. He also wasn't a slave owner....you know, just in case that matters to people.

 

Already posted brosef. Go troll the GARM.

 

I think given that it is a local event, it's worthy of it's own thread.

 

Kind of hard to forgive him for taking up arms against the federal government. Add to that his support for a nation that supported slavery in its constitution.

Exploding the statue is just dangerous though.

 

They need to remove it at night. It isn't even in Hermann park it is out on the median away from the park where no one walks or jogs. Just crush it to bits for the marble and put the rubble near the koi pond in the newly refurbed japanese gardens.

First public art installation in Houston is pointless. The real problem will be getting rid of the Sam Houston statue in the middle of the roundabout.

 

Aaaanndd the root of ignorance. Never mind 99% of those who fought for the South were too poor and never owned a slave. And then there is the whole conscription thing. Or that the country was already divided long before the Civil War and there were people who actually believed in a separate country beyond the whole whitewashed black and white belief the Civil War was only about slavery.

Silly me thinking the Confederate uniform was gray. Clearly it was a white robe with a pointed hood.

 

Not for me. His loyalty was to the state and I can understand that especially given that the reason he came to Texas in the first place was that he wanted to escape the bigotry he experienced in New Orleans which was his first experience with being in this country. IMO there's nothing to "forgive" and he was an important person in Houston history.

 

The real problem will be tearing down that statue in New York of a woman with a torch.

 

It's made out of copper skin which is like 3 bucks a pound right now. I could have contractors skin that inside a month.

 

The news yesterday was making an issue out of the judge who took him off the supervisory release

 

I think for sure they need to lock the little b*stard up and throw away the key. If you are 25 and already have 2 charges related to explosives.....yeah you need a long time out to prevent you from hurting society.

 

This really has little to do with a confederate statue. This guy has long running issues and a proclivity towards fire/explosives.

He comes from an important, wealthy (but good and giving) family who has suffered a lot and I feel for them. He clearly needs more help than he has gotten, though.

 

Ted.

 

Yeah, I'm not sure what there is to debate. Even if he was of relatively sound mind, almost nobody supports destroying public property in this way. That's independent of the statue and its meaning or origins.

 

You conveniently ignored the "taking up arms against the federal government " part.

We have a problems as a nation to be sure, but that's no excuse to attempt to overthrow a democratically elected leader.

In my opinion if you shoot at a federal installation and attempt to harm soldiers performing their legal, official duties you are a terrorist.

If you do this as an American citizen, I consider you a traitor. I don't think traitors deserve honors like statues. They deserve firing squads.

 

Correction, not overthrow in terms of the president or congress but openly defy and attack simply because you didn't get your way.

Traitorous cry babies.

 

In the document below, the word slave appears THIRTY times. No mention of sweet tea and cornbread, southern pride, cotillion, or pecan pie. Do you know what flag those guys in white robes with pointed hoods fly? It looks something like this.





Too long to post all of it but here are the Spacey parts.

A Declaration of the Causes which Impel the State of Texas to Secede from the Federal Union.


The government of the United States, by certain joint resolutions, bearing date the 1st day of March, in the year A.D. 1845, proposed to the Republic of Texas, then a free, sovereign and independent nation, the annexation of the latter to the former, as one of the co-equal states thereof,

The people of Texas, by deputies in convention assembled, on the fourth day of July of the same year, assented to and accepted said proposals and formed a constitution for the proposed State, upon which on the 29th day of December in the same year, said State was formally admitted into the Confederated Union.

In view of these and many other facts, it is meet that our own views should be distinctly proclaimed.

We hold as undeniable truths that the governments of the various States, and of the confederacy itself, were established exclusively by the white race, for themselves and their posterity; that the African race had no agency in their establishment; that they were rightfully held and regarded as an inferior and dependent race, and in that condition only could their existence in this country be rendered beneficial or tolerable.

That in this free government all white men are and of right ought to be entitled to equal civil and political rights; that the servitude of the African race, as existing in these States, is mutually beneficial to both bond and free, and is abundantly authorized and justified by the experience of mankind, and the revealed will of the Almighty Creator, as recognized by all Christian nations; while the destruction of the existing relations between the two races, as advocated by our sectional enemies, would bring inevitable calamities upon both and desolation upon the fifteen slave-holding states.

By the secession of six of the slave-holding States, and the certainty that others will speedily do likewise, Texas has no alternative but to remain in an isolated connection with the North, or unite her destinies with the South.

For these and other reasons, solemnly asserting that the federal constitution has been violated and virtually abrogated by the several States named, seeing that the federal government is now passing under the control of our enemies to be diverted from the exalted objects of its creation to those of oppression and wrong, and realizing that our own State can no longer look for protection, but to God and her own sons-- We the delegates of the people of Texas, in Convention assembled, have passed an ordinance dissolving all political connection with the government of the United States of America and the people thereof and confidently appeal to the intelligence and patriotism of the freemen of Texas to ratify the same at the ballot box, on the 23rd day of the present month.

Adopted in Convention on the 2nd day of Feby, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one and of the independence of Texas the twenty-fifth.

 

The reasons for the civil war was then plain and simple about slavery. Read the declaration written about why the state of Texas seceded and many other states had similar declarations that specifically state it was about slavery. @CometsWin posted it in this thread.

The white washing comes into play for those who want to pretend that it wasn't about slavery.

 

Still missing the point with arguments about slavery etc. If you were old and from a long time ago your statue has to go even if you were a minor when slavery was abolished. Obviously people will try to blow these and any other statues up. Jim Hogg's statue is the litmus test. If it offends less people than Hogg than it might able to stay. Otherwise, bye bye.