President Joe Biden did some more weeding on Friday, cancelling the last guy’s cheap “Garden of Heroes,” the concrete expression of the white grievance that dripped from the mouths of the speakers at last year’s July 3 MAGA rally at Mount Rushmore. President Biden’s order contained none of the polemic folderol that the last guy slathered onto his sculpture order; he just said, revoked.
President Joe Biden on Friday put the kibosh on his predecessor’s planned “National Garden of American Heroes” and revoked [the] former President…’s executive orders aimed at social media companies’ moderation policies and branding American foreign aid.
In an executive order of his own, Biden abolished the T****-formed task force to create the new monument, which the former president proposed last year. It was to have featured sculptures of dozens of American historical figures, including presidents, athletes and pop culture icons, envisioned by T**** as “a vast outdoor park that will feature the statues of the greatest Americans to ever live” [Zeke Miller, “Biden Cancels T****’s Planned ‘Garden of American Heroes’,” AP, 2021.05.14].
Of course, cancelling the statue garden didn’t cancel any actual work, since, like much of the last guy’s agenda, the “Garden of Heroes” was all talk and no action:
Killing T****’s sculpture garden is a highly symbolic gesture for Biden as little concrete work had been done to bring it to fruition since it was announced last year, outside of naming the people designated for inclusion [Nick Niedzwiadek, “Biden Kills T****’s Sculpture Garden of ‘American Heroes’,” 2021.05.14].
Evidently President Biden thinks we have better uses for concrete and steel than erecting statues of Whitney Houston, Cy Young, and Alex Trebek. Maybe we can simply name some bridges and municipal water systems for our heroes.
President Biden’s order revoked other measures grounded in the last guy’s white rage. Friday’s order revoked the anti-protest order seeking to protect Confederate statues and the attempt to strip online platforms of the protections they enjoy under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. In a separate executive action, President Biden revoked the unfair, inhumane, and un-American order barring immigrants who can’t prove they have the cash to cover their own health insurance.
Alex Turbek?
Alex Trebek was Canadian !
Uh, oh. Get ready for Noem Outrage in five, four, three, two….
As someone who remembers Whitney Houston singing the
national anthem at that one super bowl years ago, I think I’d
support a statue of her if that was the only one they did.
Houston had it all and then married Bobby Brown and sank like a lead balloon. Drugs kill!
A native of Canada, Trebek became a naturalized United States citizen in 1998. Wiki
Why would anyone trust a trump heroes garden filled with the likes of Limbaugh to whom he gave the Medal of Freedom.
Just put them all in a wax museum.
You know there is alot of humor here, on the other hand, sometimes I feel like zelig. 20 plus years ago I invited Carol Hepper to Ringling for a week of making prints, I knew her from South Dakota days. I believe I actually influenced her work at that time or rather my work did. At least, I said in a South Dakota way, while she was drawing a steel connector that she was using at the time to connect her copper pipes. I could cast those in any shape you wanted in bronze. Famous last words.. The very next summer I cast 21 of those big connectors and they had body shapes. I believe they ended up in sculptures called Hot and Cold running or something like that. I just remember it was an enormous amount of hard work. She gave me a small copper sculpture for it which I cherish to this day, its in my living room along with the drawing and two of her prints. She had a piece with the steel connectors( less sexy) at the White House garden sponsored by Hillary Clinton. Starting with Mrs Kennedy it was part of a series of modern American sculpture exhibits at the White House. That piece is now owned by the art museum in Orlando. That is how the garden at the White House should be used. You really need to maintain contact with your friends people, Carol died last week of cancer. A great American and South Dakota sculptor.
Mark…thanks for bringing in Carol Hepper to the conversation. Sorry to hear she has passed. Her life and art are evidence of the unpredictability of genius…she’s from McLaughlin, not a rich visual arts environment to my knowledge and South Dakota generally no a hot bed of non representational sculpture. Never underestimate the people of South Dakota and their capacity for genius. Too bad they have to move out of state to be appreciated.