Update: Mayor Brandon Johnson has reversed course. He will not take down the statue of George Washington. Ald. Nick Sposato (38th) was outraged when told about the plans to remove the statue.
“When does this stop — the redoing everything and eliminating everything? I just don’t get it,” said Sposato, Johnson’s handpicked chair of the City Council’s Committee on Cultural Affairs and Special Events. “He’s George Washington. He risked everything. We are who we are because of this man.”
But shortly before 8 p.m. Tuesday, the Johnson administration reversed course. Sposato got the news in a phone call from senior mayoral adviser Jason Lee.
“It’s not coming down. It’s staying right where it is,” Sposato told the Sun-Times.
THE ORIGINAL STORY
Hardcore leftist Brandon Johnson will pull down the statue of the father of the country from Chicago City Hall. His communications director said it’s unrelated to Washington’s ownership of slaves.
Ronnie Reese, Johnson’s communications director, said the removal is unrelated to Washington’s owning slaves.
“If people want to think that, I can’t stop them. But that’s not our intent,” Reese said.
“We’re just freshening up the space. Making it a bit more current. There’s a lot of Chicago icons who would be deserving of statues as well. We should be considering that also — Ida B. Wells, DuSable, Harold Washington.”
Wells was a black journalist. DuSable was a black settler, and Harold was a black politician.
Johnson’s plan has been met with fierce criticism by Ald. Nicholas Sposato, the chairman of the City Council’s Committee on Cultural Affairs and Special Events.
“He’s George Washington. He risked everything,” he said. “We are who we are because of this man. He could have just stood down and not get involved with the [Revolutionary] War and came here and lived a good life. But he fought for who we are. He should be honored all over the place. Next, are we gonna change the name of the streets?”
Johnson’s plan to remove Washington’s monuments follows former Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s decision to “temporarily” remove two Christopher Columbus statues during the height of the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 ignited by the death of George Floyd.
The message is clear.
Hardcore leftists are transforming the United States, erasing our history, and it has elements of racism.
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