37 reader comments so far ↓

• 1 Idle Activist // Dec 7, 2009 at 5:53 pm

  When's the Hitler statue coming to Fremont?

• 2 ballardsucka // Dec 8, 2009 at 1:01 am

  i agree. i'm not sure i get the kitsch factor of having a statue of a ruthless dictator in your neighborhood. he wasn't as bad as Stalin or Hitler, but he is believed to have murdered many thousands of people. Maybe he's more on par with Saddam Hussein.

• 3 BTown // Dec 8, 2009 at 4:03 am

  Wasn't Lenin always lit. :D

• 4 BTown // Dec 8, 2009 at 4:03 am

  Wasn't Lenin always lit. :D

• 5 Silver // Dec 8, 2009 at 6:48 am

  I love how weird Fremont is!

• 6 Idle Activist // Dec 8, 2009 at 6:52 am

  Well, I hope Ballard doesn't need to make a mass murderer its mascot to be weird.

• 7 Ytoo // Dec 8, 2009 at 3:53 pm

  Is it not somewhat normnal that people die in wars and in revolutions? Did anyone die in our own revoltution? Did you support the Czar and admire his rule in Russia?

• 8 Ytoo // Dec 8, 2009 at 3:55 pm

  Lenin was a mass murder? He was a revolutionary…sorta like Thomas Jefferson or Thomas Paine.

• 9 Idle Activist // Dec 8, 2009 at 5:53 pm

  Jefferson executed tens of thousands of his opponents after the Revolution? Jefferson and Paine's political beliefs led to the death of tens of millions, forced mass imprisonment of opponents, mass executions?

  That's news to me. I'd like to read your history books.

• 10 Ytoo // Dec 8, 2009 at 6:05 pm

  History is one man's opinion.

• 11 Seattle liberals = retards // Dec 8, 2009 at 6:56 pm

  Seattle liberals are the most naive and retarded liberals on Earth

• 12 TTTCOTTH // Dec 8, 2009 at 7:23 pm

  So a statue of a Socialist dictator, who was an atheist, is lighted to celebrate a religious holiday. Can we get a statue of Osama bin Laden lighted to celebrate womens rights? Only in Seattle.

• 13 TTTCOTTH // Dec 8, 2009 at 7:24 pm

  I'm sure the people in the gulags and mass graves would agree.

• 14 Ytoo // Dec 8, 2009 at 7:33 pm

  As I assume would the collateral dead in Iran.

• 15 Ytoo // Dec 8, 2009 at 7:34 pm

  What religion celebrates the winter solstice?

• 16 TTTCOTTH // Dec 8, 2009 at 8:13 pm

  Maybe you can help me find some boxes of lights labeled “Winter Solstice Lights” down at the local hardware store.

• 17 Ytoo // Dec 8, 2009 at 8:20 pm

  Major changes for good or bad seldom come without pain. The serfs were 100% better off after the Czar was sent packing. Was it all perfect? Of course not.

• 18 Idle Activist // Dec 8, 2009 at 8:21 pm

  No, actually, it's the accumulation of historical research conducted over time by many different people, compiled and read with a critical eye by intelligent people…..oh, and by the people who find the graves.

• 19 foreigner // Dec 8, 2009 at 8:29 pm

  Lenin wasn't a ruthless dictator. Only ignorant Americans still think that this many years after the Cold war. American's have edited history in much the same way China has edited Google. You're all brainwashed – it would be funny if your foreign policy wasn't so dangerous for the rest of us.

• 20 TTTCOTTH // Dec 8, 2009 at 8:49 pm

  Right, all Lenin did was kiss babies.

  Moron

• 21 Idle Activist // Dec 8, 2009 at 9:01 pm

  Actually a lot of Russians thought the same thing…maybe you didn't see them tearing down these statues in 1989-1990?

• 22 SPG // Dec 8, 2009 at 9:04 pm

  The revolution is one thing, but waging war and genocide on your neighbors to enforce your ideology and steal their resources is quite another. See Baltic history and the rest of Eastern Europe for a small taste of what happened there.

• 23 SPG // Dec 8, 2009 at 9:06 pm

  How do you justify the genocide committed outside of Russia? Are the tens of thousands of Eastern Europeans who were sent off to Siberia to starve to death better off? Did they want anything to do with communism or Lenin's beliefs?

• 24 SPG // Dec 8, 2009 at 9:07 pm

  I should also point out that those same changes in conditions happened throughout the west without the need for massive repression and bloodshed.

• 25 foreigner // Dec 8, 2009 at 9:10 pm

  yes yes… that would've been stalin and his predesesors… i'm not defending them. please go look up the difference between lenin and stalin. you might get a surprise. assuming you have access to a book not written by an american.

• 26 foreigner // Dec 8, 2009 at 9:12 pm

  doh – replace predecessor with successor :D

• 27 Idle Activist // Dec 8, 2009 at 9:43 pm

  I'm well aware who Stalin and Lenin were and who killed more. I also know that all across the former USSR people tore these statues down after living under one of the most brutal political systems ever created by Lenin and his followers.

  So answer my question, why no Hitler statue? Germany did pretty well under him until about the early 1940s.

• 28 NoraBell // Dec 8, 2009 at 9:59 pm

  Wiccens.

• 29 NoraBell // Dec 8, 2009 at 10:01 pm

  Putting a goofy lighted hat on his head is hardly honoring the guy.

• 30 stopthebuzz // Dec 8, 2009 at 10:08 pm

  Wow! You all act as if somebody snuck that statue of Lenin in overnight!

• 31 blackhook // Dec 8, 2009 at 10:35 pm

  For those who don't believe in the Christian voodoo & superstitions, Christmas is a secular holiday.

• 32 foreigner // Dec 9, 2009 at 12:14 am

  The intention of the socialist system Lenin tried to implement was not the same as the corruption Stalin used to kill thousands and garner power for himself. Stalin perverted it but continued to use the same terms, he just killed any remaining party members who disagreed wtih him including Trotsky. The fact that Lenin failed to implement Socialism (because the entire socialist revolution failed) and he also failed to recognise the threat of Stalin (who was but a bit player in the party prior to Lenin's death) before he died doesnt make him responsible for Stalin's actions. As for Hitler – I cant vouch for his intentions other than power at any cost. You can compare Hitler with Stalin, but no Hitler with Lenin.

• 33 SPG // Dec 9, 2009 at 4:22 am

  Some of us do recognize the difference between Lenin and Stalin, et all. I'm still not comfortable with having a statue of the guy who basically got the whole ball rolling. To say that Lenin is completely innocent of the results of what he set in motion is just as naive as saying that Lenin = Hitler.
  The reality is that Lenin was held up as the ideological father of the Soviet Union and much of what Stalin did was justifed by Lenin's teachings. These statues were the worship of the ideology behind the state. Though Lenin himself may not have been as bloodthirsty as Stalin outside of the revolution, he is still a major symbol for the Soviet Union and therefore a statue of him can still be offensive to all the people who suffered under the repression of the Soviets.

• 34 Ytoo // Dec 9, 2009 at 7:20 pm

  So statutes of Wellington need to be removed less they offend the French. Statutes of Napoleon are to be removed less they offend the Spanish. Stone Mountain needs to be blown out of the ground as well as Mt Rushmore because it offends the natives.

  Beyond silly here. What are you all….Glenn Beck wannabes or Political correctness Pollys? You could be either.

• 35 ballardissmallilikeanonymity // Dec 9, 2009 at 7:38 pm

  Ytoo asked “What religion celebrates the winter solstice?”

  Actually, all you Christians are celebrating the winter solstice. Co-opting the previously pagan holiday was the ONLY reason December 25th was chosen as the date of Christmas.

• 36 Ytoo // Dec 9, 2009 at 7:52 pm

  Those Christians are a bunch of thieves.

• 37 SPG // Dec 11, 2009 at 1:09 am

  Somehow I'm just not that comfortable with putting up statues celebrating people who espoused ideologies counter to our country's founding principles and actively worked for our downfall.
  BTW, do we have any statues of Napoleon in this country? Wellington? The Kaiser? Mao?

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