Previous | Next :: Ghosts of the Past in Stone : Monument to the Confederate Leaders : Stone Mountain GA | August 5, 2010, 12:38 am

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This is a monument to the leaders of America's Southern Confederacy.......... (The losing side in the American Civil War that favored slavery on their Southern Plantations )........ although the original idea came back in the time just after the Civil War that raged from 1861 till 1865 .......... the carving did not start till 1915........... and due to disputes personal and political........... artists being dismissed blah blah........ the project was left derelict and half complete for 35 years and then was not actually finished until 1972................

Anyway........... it is a proud carving in the incredible granite face of Stone Mountain.............

On all nights during the Summer a fancy laser and fireworks show gives an un-commentated purely visual and musical show.

Its odd to come to a memorial that evokes the memory of people you would not support............ and have always thought of really as vilified.............

But this is the South.........

The Southern Generals are portrayed as proud and honorable leaders of men who fought bravely and desperately then accepted defeat with honor .......... in the laser show you see the Southern Generals break their swords after the war is over ............ as the pieces fall they make up the Southern map of the USA showing them then making the alliance that forged the most powerful nation in the world.

That laser show went on to depict the heroes of the South ............ including Dr Martin Luther King jr.............. and musical heroes like Lynyrd Skynyrd...........

It got the the vibe of all this to somehow work............ which is no mean feat.......... after all.............. some of this is a very tricky period of history that is still loaded even today........

I was sad to see the Russians were so keen to destroy all the statues of Marx and Lenin.......... it seemed wrong as they did reflect strongly the ideas of the Russian past even a past now overthrown .............. I guess I can take the same view of the Southern Generals.......... these are icons of a different time........... its interesting that they exist and remind you of the truth and some of the myths of the past.

Cheers Jez XXXXXXXXXX

www.jezblog.com

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