forum.mormonentum.de – Das Exmo-Diskussionsforum

Das Exmo-Diskussionsforum

Erster Beitrag von 8 Beiträgen.

Seite erstellt am 27.4.24 um 2:17 Uhr

der Beitrag:

Verfasser: Gunar

Datum: Freitag, den 26. März 2004, um 16:23 Uhr

Betrifft: MMM Bauernopfer wird in Utah Denkmal gesetzt

Southern Utah city to raise statue of John D. Lee

By Mark Havnes
The Salt Lake Tribune

WASHINGTON CITY -- John D. Lee -- early Utah developer, farmer, explorer, diplomat, adopted son of Brigham Young and executed killer -- is about to be elevated to a pedestal overlooking this expanding southwestern city.
A life-size bronze statue of Lee has been standing in the corner of an art studio for more than a year, waiting to see if it will join the statues of four other Mormon pioneers who started Washington City, two miles north of St. George.
The problem was, should the city honor a man who, in September 1857, took part in the massacre at Mountain Meadows of 120 Arkansas settlers on their way to California?
"The time has come to do it," said Mayor Terrill Clove on Thursday. "Its risky, but we’re going to go for it."
The statue will join those of Samuel Adair, Robert Covington, John Chidester and Peter Neilson who, along with Lee, helped carve this community out of the red desert landscape on orders of LDS Church President Young.
The unveiling will be May 7 during Cotton Days in front of the Old Rock School, which contains the city museum.
Many here feel Lee was sacrificed to appease authorities and that his life as a settler of the community went beyond his infamous reputation as the only man tried and convicted of in the massacre. He was executed by a firing squad in 1877.
"Lee bought property here to grow cotton, built a mill and was involved as a liaison with the Indians," said Clove.
The statue was commissioned in 2002 with the other figures, but its installation has been delayed while the town waited for an opinion from leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Clove said a letter from the office of LDS Church President Gordon B. Hinkley said the church had no opinion on the matter, which alleviated a lot of pressure from city officials.
"I don’t like controversy," he said.
"And if the church has hot issues with the statue, we probably won’t put it up,"
Since announcing the decision in this month’s city newsletter, a few calls of outrage and some of encouragement have come into city offices.
Scott Fancher, treasurer of the Mountain Meadows Massacre Memorial Foundation in Arkansas, said on Thursday, "Our foundation believes Lee was offered up as a scapegoat and received more blame than he deserves. He didn’t act without orders."
Harold Cahoon, historian and treasurer of the Washington City Historical Society, said the mystery surrounding who ordered the massacre will keep interest in it alive, even if many in southern Utah wish all memory of the incident would just disappear.
"You have to decide and make your own assessment," said Cahoon of Lee. "He just did what he was told to do."You have to decide and make your own assessment. He just did what he was told to do.

Quelle