We advocate removal of ALL statues, including all those we now wish to celebrate and regard as politically correct. We should replace them all with commemorative steles with inscriptions and bas-relief visual stories, including the stories of British, French, Spanish, and now American imperialism and settler colonialism of the Oregon territory, the good and the bad. Monumental inscriptions should tell a comprehensive and unbiased history, and since they can easily be replaced, they and the bas-relief impressions can be periodically recast, and the story retold for each generation. This will transmit a much higher information content, and a higher truth value, and the stories and notable sayings can be easily reproduced at home, where a variety of moral and political lessons can be learned, critically evaluated, and discussed. This strategy for public arts has the additional virtue of keeping the scholars and artisans employed, and encouraging them against becoming degenerate, as they tend to become. The Hebrew bible forbids idolatry for good reason, and God-fearing gentiles here should learn and borrow this open cultural practice from the Jews. The reason they tend to be intellectually and morally superior has little to do with biology and everything to do with their refusal to practice the artificial stupidity induced by putting humanoid or animal faces on statues, which their Oral law forbids even when only for beauty. As the 12th century sage Maimonides wrote, “If they [bnei noah, righteous gentiles] wish to honor great men of the past, they can simply recite their notable sayings: there is no need to erect statues.” (sefer Mishpatim, the laws of kings and wars). Words are a more logically correct representation of what was inside the head, and they are the only part of the brain to outlive death. But the only history that most of us learned from statues was that people in olden days were large, greenish brown, liked to ride horses and hold swords, and were covered were bird droppings. These statues come not from knowledge, but from pride, and now most are fallen. “Pride comes before a fall”, say the proverbs of Solomon, “humility comes before honor”. Statues of Solomon are to be found almost nowhere (except perhaps in the closets of Italian art museums), yet no other king in history remains as magnificent as he, to this very day. Because his words endure, and his disciples are wise.

• Petition to remove the golden brawny woodsman idol from the Oregon capitol building, replace grass roof, flag, or traditional cupola belltower
• SUCCESS! Remove the "promised land" pioneer statue from the Portland plaza blocks. The RACC voluntarily de-accessioned this monument unlike other statues which were toppled by mobs, and at least one of their employees signed our petition.
• Stop valorizing gun violence, by removing the Soldier statue from the Portland plaza, with its brandished gun and call to arms. There are better ways to memorialize our history in Spanish-American war, and other ways to represent the “Guam Infantryman”.
• Leninopad - Down with Lenin! Remove or deface the Fremont Lenin statue, in solidarity with those in Ukraine, Russia, and Seattle who share our republican-democratic values. Read Dimitri Vokogonov's 1990's biography of Lenin, and David Shub's 1920's biography, and his appendix “Lenin in his own Words”. These notable sayings from Vladimir Lenin should be remembered and critically analyzed.
• Portland should follow example of San Francisco taking a survey of its 100 statues and monuments which are offensive and should be removed? S.F. should take our advice and remove ALL statues, replacing them with commemorative steles with inscriptions and bas-relief visual stories.

Mellon.org — Monuments Project announced in 2020, $250MM pledged over 5 years to re-imagine the countries approach to monuments and memorials. Amount doubled in 2023 to $500MM. Philadelphia monumentslab.com gets $4MM.

City contract with the Regional Arts and Cultural Commission has not been renewed and is transferred to the City Office of Arts and Culture. It annual budget of $7.5MM had been funded by the $35/person city arts tax.

We agree with the testimony of Lukas Angus, support the de-accessioning of statues and oppose their tendency to mythologize history, and ask for honest histories to be told instead, with outreach to indigenous communities. Mayor Wheeler and Dan Ryan appear to agree.

“If you wish to honor great men of the past, there is no need to erect a statue, simply recite their notable sayings” – paraphrase of Moses Maimonides