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New York’s most famous Rough Rider will soon ride no more in front of the American Museum of Natural History on the Upper West Side. Chalk it up as another victory for cancel culture — and a blow to history.
After museum officials proposed the iconic Equestrian Statue of President Theodore Roosevelt be relocated last year, a city panel finalized the move this week in a unanimous vote. The sculpture depicts the 26th president on horseback, flanked by a Native American and African. Its designer meant to portray the trio as “heroic,” but the burn-it-all-down crowd calls it a symbol of colonialism and racism.
The artwork was commissioned a year after Roosevelt’s death as part of a larger state memorial to honor the ex-New York governor and one of the most popular presidents in US history. It was also intended to celebrate his work in conservation and as a naturalist and his ties to the museum. Roosevelt’s father was one of the museum’s founders, and the president himself often donated specimens from his hunts to various exhibits.
Alas, the offense-takers shouted “white supremacy.” Never mind that the work’s sculptor also said it was meant it to emphasize TR’s “friendliness to all races.” (Teddy, for instance, hosted Booker T. Washington at the White House, standing up to segregationists.)
He isn’t alone, of course. Even national heroes like George Washington and Abraham Lincoln aren’t safe from ludicrous calls to take down physical tributes to them.
Let’s face it: In today’s culture, someone will take offense to everything in America’s past. Yet if we cave to every grievance, there will be no history left to display. Future generations will be the poorer for it. Starting with those visiting the Natural History museum.
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