A Sincere Gesture Of Gratitude Or Yet Another Politically Correct Exercise?

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3649931/Florence-Nightingale-supporters-row-black-rival-s-new-statue-claiming-sold-alcohol-sandwiches-Crimea-venerated-based-false-achievements.html

[mikey4444]

I would have thought that there is plenty of room for both statues.

[youngmafbog]

More PC rollocks.

[mikey4444]

Would we, or the DM, be discussing Mary Seacole if she had been white ?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Seacole

[mikey4444]

Here is a quote from the current blue-eyed boy of the Tory Party ::

"In 2005, Boris Johnson (former Mayor of London, then editor of The Spectator) wrote of learning about Seacole from his daughter's school pageant and speculated: "I find myself facing the grim possibility that it was my own education that was blinkered "

[mushroom25]

//Would we, or the DM, be discussing Mary Seacole if she had been white ? //

oh dear, the race card has been played, effectively closing down any debate that might be had. now anyone who might dare suggest that mary seacole wasn't the single most important nursing figure in the 1800s is a racist.

[wolf63]

I may be in the minority but I can't see the point of putting up statues for people who lived such a long time ago. It is a waste of money.

People who do good deeds usually do it for their own reasons.

[mikey4444]

Mush...I am suggesting nothing of the kind...but her wiki entry would seem to suggest that there is plenty of room for recognition for Seacole and Nightingale.

[anotheoldgit]

mikey4444

I wouldn't rely on Wikipedia for you information mikey, did you know that Wikipedia entries can be written and edited by anyone?

http://onlinelearningtips.com/2012/04/25/why-you-shouldnt-use-wikipedia-for-research/

[sp1814]

Errr...according to the report, 'all she did was 'sell wine and sandwiches' in Crimea.'

Sounds like a bit of a heroine to me.

Anyone who would be willing to supply me with booze and sarnies is up there with the best of them.

In answer to your question though AOG...like Florence herself, the legend of Mary has been mangled left, right and centre. I'm certain that both these fine women can be venerated without supporters from either side getting their knickers in a twist.

[anotheoldgit]

sp1814

/// Anyone who would be willing to supply me with booze and sarnies is up there with the best of them. ///

The Landlord of our local and the guy who ran our fish and chip shop during the blitz, have never had a statue erected in their memory.

[Mamyalynne]

Is the outcry because Mary's statue is taller or is it that it is at St Thomas' Hospital?

There is room for all these wonderful people to be commemorated, each did something special , there should be no competition in whose contribution was greater.

[Mamyalynne]

Florence is well represented in the memorial department.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Nightingale#Museums_and_monuments

[Mamyalynne]

Edith Cavell too...


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_Cavell#Burial_and_memorials

[mikey4444]

voice of common sense Mamy !

[anotheoldgit]

Mamyalynne

/// Is the outcry because Mary's statue is taller or is it that it is at St Thomas'
Hospital? ///

No, but the doubtfulness of her contribution during the Crimea war is.

[Mamyalynne]

She is being lauded for what she did, others have been lauded for what they did.

I don't see the need to do any weighing of whose contribution was greater.


Was the campaign for your local landlord and the proprietor of the Chip Shop to have a memorial ever launched?

[mushroom25]

//She is being lauded for what she did//

yes. but her achievements and deeds are being "spun" by historical revisionists beyond that which Mary herself set out in her memoirs.

the following piece appeared in the Times Educational Supplement in 2013, when the government were moved to retain Mary Seacole in the national curriculum:-

http://www.uoguelph.ca/~cwfn/short/tls-seacole.htm

[Mamyalynne]

I should imagine the country and indeed others worldwide are awash with statues/plaques etc etc of those who have had their deeds 'spun' or expanded.

To me it takes nothing away from the good Mary did - had I been alive then would I have been brave enough to get involved even on a small scale?

I really don't know.

[Mamyalynne]

As an addendum , we make or own minds up on who we think are worthy of recognition.

[retrocop]

Sounds like a charlatan and a fraud. She wears a campaign medal with no record of its award to her in the London Gazette and is not engraved with her name!! Perhaps she heard the new VC award came with an annual pension and thought this would attract the same.
In the 1st War she would be described as a medically unqualified Mademoiselle of an estaminet.Even with the French penchant for dishing out medals with a smacker I don't think Mademoiselle from Armentires got a Croix de Guerre and she provided extra comforts to the troops!!!
The dusky girls and boys serving my daily meals and T and Bicks are medically unqualified and this hospital is a war zone!!! No statues for them.
Incidentally for those who bash the Wail they did a 2 page spread on this woman about 20 yrs ago!!! :-)