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Unread 04-05-2021, 01:33 PM
Julie Steiner Julie Steiner is offline
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Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: San Diego, CA, USA
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Thanks for sharing that, David.

Larkin's centenary is next year, so I expect much heated discussion of his public honors, and a quick search shows that the Hull Council recently expressed concern about whether they should prepare to deal with statue-removal campaigns due to Larkin's problematic opinions, and should perhaps even consider doing something preemptive.

Personally, I would be surprised if statues and other honors were actually to be removed over nothing more than Larkin's personal correspondence, each piece of which apparently had an intended audience of one. Serious campaigns to remove public honors generally only gain steam in response to honorees' actions that had a demonstrable adverse effect on others, including the public expression of opinions.

That said, the capacity of public officials to trim their sails depending on which way they think the political wind is blowing should never be underestimated.
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