I have a simple solution to the statue controversy. Sell the statues to private persons to erect on private property. The cities, and states make some money, and the snowflakes have to still see the statues, and there would be nothing they could do, but close their eyes.
Also for every statue taken down, put up 10 billboards with image of the statue. This nonsense would stop fast.
This is probably the most workable solution. It is a shame it seems to be coming to this. But even here we have at least one person who actually condemns Washington and Jefferson because they happened to own slaves.
I really think what we are seeing is the continued effort to effect cultural genocide on the Southern people. This appears, to me, to be one prong of a larger attack on any number of cultural traits that are now offensive to radical, atheistic, left wingers.
Here in Utah, a federal judge ruled that the State could not erect crosses along highways to mark where Highway Patrol Troopers lost their lives because atheists and the court saw the cross as a religious symbol and thus a violation of the anti-establishment clause. I think this is silly in any location but it is notable that in Utah the majority religion doesn't use the cross in its architecture, worship, or personal decorating or fashion at all. In Utah, to most Utahns, the cross really is very much a purely secular symbol to memorialize the fallen.
Presumable, some other memorial that had never had any religious connection would have been acceptable. But when driving down the freeway, a large cross with a name on it is very clearly understood. I don't know what else except some gaudy billboard would similarly convey the same unambiguous message.
So, in the wake of the ruling, several private property owners have donated small plots of land near freeways and other major roads to host these memorials.
On the one hand the memorials are still on public display and the haters have little choice but to drive past them just as they always did (or never actually did since most all of them have never set foot in Utah before). On the other hand, a judge over-ruled the will of 95%+ of the population and appeased a very small, radical, out-of-State group whose goal is enforce atheism as the official state religion in this nation.
If the sale of small plots of parks or road medians to private, historic societies could survive a single round through the courts, the public display of the monuments would be protected for generations.
Washington, Jefferson, Lee, Davis, Lincoln, and others were great leaders of the peoples of this nation. It is entirely appropriate to memorialize the good they did despite whatever views, words, or deeds were racist, sexist, or otherwise offensive by our current standards.
It is a real shame to see American citizens acting like ISIS fanatics in terms of wanting to rewrite history or erase any memory of those whom they deem inappropriate.