Granddad puts his foot down

After a badly received public "conversation" in which most of those present were silenced, Portland's mayor, Keith Wilson, has announced that the statue of Abraham Lincoln will be restored on its original pedestal in the South Blocks, rather than lowered to the ground because woke. Wilson's announcement was in direct contradiction of the city's parks bureaucracy, which seemed just the day before to be adamant that the statue, which was toppled and damaged by vandals six years ago, should be repositioned so as to tell a story of a supposedly noble modern "uprising" against oppression. Part of the parks department's motivation was also to penalize Lincoln, who freed the slaves and saved the nation, for not also reversing centuries of murderous hatred of native Americans.

To those of us who were actually around in 2020 and watched on Twitter the "indigenous night of rage" that included the destruction of the statue, the idea of somehow honoring the fools who trashed the city that summer and fall is particularly offensive. The Lincoln statue, and quite a few others, were wrecked by a roving band of psychotic people who were using the death of George Floyd as an excuse to break stuff. The bars were closed – everything was closed, due to Covid – and many young white Portlanders took to the streets to "protest" in large part because there was nothing else to do. In their midst were a few of the usual lunatics who seized the opportunity to destroy property, any property, because it felt good. The one guy was a Reed student, and a faculty brat at that.

Anyway, the decision to put Abe back on the pedestal, rather than fight it out in court and in the media with historic preservationists, seems like a flex by Wilson against the arrogant brats in the city bureaucracy. If so, bully for him, although I still think he's a strange guy.

But it wasn't such a great moment for deputy city administrator Donnie Oliveira. Apparently he was the highest ranking city official at the absurd public "conversation" earlier in the week, and the decision to chuck the parks department's restoration plan sure looks like Oliveira and his people were overruled by Wilson. But hey, that's the least of Donnie's problems. He answers directly to the comical new city manager, Raymond Lee. Oliveira's next height issue may well be how high his own severance payment should be set.