“We are fighting over the last will and testament of the United States,” David Marcus, an organizer of the rally and a contributor to the conservative website The Federalist said through a megaphone. “We are full-blooded brothers and sisters, and heirs to the most extraordinary experiment in freedom that the world has ever known. God bless Teddy Roosevelt.”The museum announced last week that, with approval from the mayor and President Roosevelt’s family, it would remove the 80-year-old bronze statue. The museum’s president, Ellen V. Futter, emphasized last week that the decision was not about Roosevelt but about the statue itself — namely its “hierarchical composition.” It features the president riding high on horseback, flanked by a Native American man and an African man, depicting them, Mayor Bill de Blasio said, “as subjugated and racially inferior.”Speakers supporting the statue used the protest to rail against a broad range of issues including abortion and religion. One woman called for the removal of “the feminists and the homosexuals” from the City Council.

Source: New York Times June 29, 2020 00:45 UTC