It will cost a San Francisco school district more than half a million dollars to cover up a "controversial" mural of George Washington, after a handful of activists complained that the mere sight of the nation's first president was "traumatizing" to students.
Robby Soave at Reason Magazine reports that the San Francisco Unified School District will meet next week to discuss which of three "cover up" options is best for the mural, "The Life of Washington," which graces the foyer of George Washington High School. They'll decide whether to paint over the mural at a cost of $600,000, hide it behind paneling at a cost of $875,000, or hide it behind curtains (for the low, low price of just $300,000).
As Soave points out, that money could go to any number of important initiatives or even to hiring more teachers the middle option, a $600,000 paint job, could support one newly hired SFUSD teacher for more than six years (SFUSD is currently experiencing a teacher shortage) but a 13-member working group, tasked with scrubbing SFUSD of controversial historical monuments and materials says the school has no choice but to jettison the work of art.
The painting "glorifies slavery, genocide, colonization, manifest destiny, white supremacy, oppression" and "doesn't represent SFUSD values of social justice, diversity, united, student-centered," the working group said in a report issued earlier this year.
Oddly enough, "The Life of Washington" isn't meant to be a rosy interpretation of Washington's life. Painted in the mid-1930s by a "Russian-American artist named Victor Arnautoff, who held leftist sympathies," the mural actually depicts Washington setting controversial priorities, sending men to conquer the west at the expense of Native Americans, and plotting the future of a free United States while turning a blind eye to slavery.
But it's the painting's depiction of Washington's darker tendencies that ultimately irked a group of "outside busybodies," according to National Review. Intent on ignoring the actual content or meaning of the painting, several activists who showed up at the working group's meeting on the murals suggested that the depicted violence against Native Americans and other minorities be taken at face value, not as a commentary on Washington's larger legacy. "Why do we have to explain the pain caused by the visual offense that we see in that building that is supposed to be an institution for learning?" one woman reportedly asked the working group.
A Native American present at the meeting objected to the activists' concerns, pointing out, Reason says, that the mural shows "what actually happened" when Washington dispatched pioneers to conquer the west. But the progressives, intent on whitewashing Washington, took no notice.
They also, it seems, took no notice of George Washington High School students who, National Review says,"were against its removal or just apathetic." Concerns over the mural seem to have originated not with any actually "traumatized" students, but with former San Francisco Unifed School District board member, Matt Haney, who has since gone on to an illustrious career in San Francisco city government. Beyond just painting over or covering the mural, Haney actually wanted to change the name of George Washington High School because George Washington owned slaves (a fact depicted in the mural he wanted covered up).
Now, San Francisco will spend a half million dollars saving students from something they didn't require saving from. And, according to Reason, if the $600,000 figure seems unduly high for a project that could probably be completed in a weekend with several cans of white paint from Home Depot, it's because it is; San Francisco schools are required to conduct an "environmental impact survey" before they can commit to any major building transformation projects, including a paint job.
Poster Comment:
I graduated from George Washington High. At the time, I was living at 90 Northridge st in the Hunter's Point Housing Project. It took me an hour and a half to get to school on 3 different buses. I was enrolled in Miss Riordan's World Litt course. It started with us reading Aristotle's Poetics, then on to a couple of the Platonic dialogues and Plato's Allegory of the Cave. Then we read the Oedipus Cycle. Then it was on to modern literature. Gustav Flaubert's Madame Bovary, Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, Melville's Billy Budd and then we finished with a few plays, Death of a Salesman and 2 others. That was a one semester course. For fun I read 200 pages of Ludwig's Life of Napoleon. Bovary's book used real life historical persons to base his characters upon. Marie Antoinette, Emperor Louis Napoleon who thought it would be good for his popularity to declare war on Prussia. That didn't work out.
George Washington High at that time had the highest GPA of any school sending students to UC Berkeley. But we had no Social Justice Warriors. We did very well.
I told my fellow students that JFK was going to be assassinated and they the guys should volunteer for the peace time draft as soon as they graduated. Two years and out would beat 3 or 4 years in Vietnam.
#1: Lod To: Horse, 4um (#0)
People today who are offended/traumatized and otherwise terrorized by history are ____________ you fill in the blank, 'cause I cannot find the right word for it.
Lod posted on 2019-06-21 16:15:07 Reply Private Reply
#2: BTP Holdings To: Horse (#0)
The Chicago Teachers Union Pension was the only one not to experience losses a few years back.
State of Illinois pension fund made poor investments and was forced to cut pensions by 20%.
I think these students need to study more history so they are aware of the sacrifices made by the Founders of this nation. They were all men of wealth and the pledged their "lives, fortunes and sacred honor" in the quest for independence from the British.
Several of the homes of signers of the Declaration of Independence were burned in retaliation. They were all considered to be rebels and could be hung if caught. ;)
BTP Holdings posted on 2019-06-22 00:06:08 Reply Private Reply
#3: Horse To: BTP Holdings (#2)
$61/Hour Wage Needed To Rent 2-Bedroom In San Francisco, $54/Hour In San Jose
https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2019/06/20/housing-wage-61-san-francisco-54-san-jose-nlihc/
Wage Needed To Rent A Two-Bedroom (Bay Area Counties In Bold):
1 (tie). Marin $60.96 / hour
1 (tie). San Francisco $60.96
1 (tie). San Mateo $60.96
4. Santa Clara $54.60
5. Santa Cruz $46.90
6 (tie). Alameda $40.88
6 (tie). Contra Costa $40.88
8. San Diego $39.77
9. Honolulu $39.75
10. Orange, CA $39.17
Horse posted on 2019-06-22 03:04:44 Reply Private Reply
#4: BTP Holdings To: Horse (#3)
I knew this girl in suburban Denver. She told me she lost her wallet with all her pay. So I sent her $100 to help out.
The next thing she shows up in San Jose. I wonder how many guys she told that story to get enough cash to move? :-/
BTP Holdings posted on 2019-06-22 08:27:47 Reply Private Reply
#5: noone222 To: Lod (#1)
{{{{{{{{{{{{{Yawn}}}}}}}}}}}}}} As an average HS student I would have been comatose and a likely drop out ! What a load of busywork ! It's a wonder Horse didn't start robbing liquor stores. (Just being sarcastic).
Today's education is based upon a different BUDD (smells like skunk), MTV and the femail section of the Daily Mail. Our modern utopian High Schoolers are content to debate the really relevant issues such as transgender rights, free education (is it worth what ya pay for it ? ), and reparations for the long term effects and damage due to Trump derangement syndrome.
but a 13-member working group asserts the mural must go. It "glorifies slavery, genocide, colonization, manifest destiny, white supremacy, oppression," and "doesn't represent SFUSD values of social justice, diversity, united, student-centered." It's also responsible for traumatizing students, according to the activists.
To call these stooges a "working group" is a stretch when in all likelihood they haven't really ever had to "work" ! Does covering the painting change the facts ? No, it's simply another attack upon normalcy and a rewriting of history. Slavery had been in vogue around the world for milleniums and had included all races and ethnicities. The founders couldn't have eliminated slavery immediately because they were at war and attempting to establish a nation. However, they did put the issue on the table and placed the limitation in the Constitution.
It's my opinion that the current load of asshats in D.C. and its subsidiary STATES in collusion with their fellow travelers in the media are hell bent on eliminating logic and substituting a screaming cry baby tantrum society that can't cope with a historic painting but just loves Miley Cyrus sticking her ass in everyone's face.
Sometimes I sit in disbelief that we have been poked and prodded into this death spiral of dissipating values and acceptance or tolerance of horseshit that is made up by humans with purple fucking hair that can't figure out what sex they are and distributed by Amazon, by FAKEBOOK, and the mainstream national media in order to form "a more perfect union" which forces the normal working class to fund and finance the idiocy that bombards us every hour of every day.
The pendulum swings both ways and ultimately those most ill effected by whatever oppression is foisted upon them will lash out. So as we wander aimlessly into the abyss of a country swelling with Congolese and Somalian rapists, Mexican drug gangs, sanctuary shit holes, and never ending wars in the middle east, smile pilgrims because you're fucking free (and get your ass back to work).
noone222 posted on 2019-06-22 10:15:07 Reply Private Reply
#6: Lod To: noone222 (#5)
Lod posted on 2019-06-22 17:10:59 Reply Private Reply
#7: Cynicom To: noone222 (#5)
At 87 think how I feel about such horseshit.
Cynicom posted on 2019-06-22 21:31:53 Reply Private Reply
#8: noone222 To: Cynicom, Lod (#7)
noone222 posted on 2019-06-23 09:29:11 Reply Private Reply
#9: BTP Holdings To: noone222 (#5)
We worked Billy Ray Cyrus in Chicago at Rosemont. He was taking too many gifts from the fans and they had to pull the plug on him. LOL
BTP Holdings posted on 2019-06-23 10:42:13 Reply Private Reply
#10: GreyLmist To: Horse (#0)
nationalreview.com - The mural was created by a Russian émigré named Victor Arnatauff, an actual Communist ... Its hard to overstate how rock-stupid this controversy is. ... In the scene with the dead Native American, Washington points toward a band of armed explorers in buckskin marching [
overby] the natives corpse. He isnt looking at the body, however: Hes facing in the other direction, conversing with other Founders over a map of North America.Victor Arnautoff - Wikipedia
richmondsfblog.com - From the article comments: "certain lessons learned about 'trigger' artand what is desperately needed in response is education. ... who Arnautoff was, etc. One can have an uneducated reaction or an educated reaction." ... "[Arnautoff] was professor [of art] at Stanford [University] for 20 years." ... "left-wing, to the point of joining the Communist Party" ... "Interesting that Victor Arnautoff chose to return to live in the USSR in 1963."
GreyLmist posted on 2019-06-24 10:48:34 Reply Private Reply
#11: Lod To: GreyLmist, 4, all (#10)
US is beyond pathetic.
Lod posted on 2019-06-24 11:50:35 Reply Private Reply
#12: GreyLmist To: All (#10)
Note re: The Westward Vision mural. This painting likely represents the enactment of the Northwest Ordinance by the Articles of Confederation Congress (on July 13, 1787) for the establishment of government administration in the formerly British-colonial region that became America's Northwest Territories at the end of the Revolutionary War (on September 3, 1783). Those boundaries were the extent of America's "Westward Vision" before the Louisiana Purchase from France during Thomas Jefferson's Presidency. (Ref. American pioneers to the Northwest Territory - 1788: the first permanent American settlement) The mural probably also depicts George Washington pointing with urgency toward the crucial years of ongoing conflict, casualties and Peace efforts within America's Northwest frontier lands from 1783, when the war with Britain had officially ended (but the British kept forts there), through the Northwest Indian War that ended in 1795 during the 2nd term of his Presidency. 1,500 settlers were killed between 1783 and 1790 and the United States military forces reportedly had many more casualties than their opponents by the time it ended in 1795.
San Francisco set to spend $600,000 to paint over 83-year-old mural of George Washington | Fox News Video - approx. 2.5 minutes [$600,000 paint : 10 new teachers at starting salaries (of $5,000 per month for each)]
Jul. 05, 2019 - 2:26 - The 'Life of Washington' mural depicts slaves, [ghostly] white pioneers and a [wounded? or] dead Native American; Claudia Cowan reports from San Francisco.
San Francisco school board votes to paint over George Washington mural | Fox News Video - 2.5 minutes
Jul. 08, 2019 - 5:21 - School board votes to remove historical mural depicting slavery; reaction from 'The Rubin Report' host Dave Rubin.
GreyLmist posted on 2019-07-10 18:59:39 Reply Private Reply
#13: GreyLmist To: All (#10)
Notre Dame to cover Christopher Columbus murals | Fox News video - 1.75 minutes
Jan. 22, 2019 - 1:44 - The murals, which date to the late 1800s and depict Columbus's trip to America and Native Americans greeting him on the shore, will be covered by a 'woven material consistent with the decor of the space.'
The cutting-edge war to erase our culture | by Roger Kimball | New York Post | February 22, 2019
MORE ON: MONUMENT WARS
Columbus Circle statue will be a protected landmark | by Bob Fredericks | New York Post | December 6, 2018
Charlottesville's Confederate statues are war monuments: judge
Charlottesville's Confederate statues ruled war monuments | by Ebony Bowden | New York Post | April 30, 2019
GreyLmist posted on 2019-07-10 21:19:33 Reply Private Reply