A 90-year-old sculpture of President Abraham Lincoln’s bust was defaced in Chicago earlier this week. he Phil Bloomquist erected statue has been in the West Englewood neighborhood since 1926 and had survived to remain in relatively fair shape up until a couple of weeks ago.
The sculpture, which sits on 69th Street and Wolcott Avenue, was initially damaged two weeks ago when it was spray painted black. This time around, the vandals tried to ensure that there would be no bringing the landmark back; plastering it in tar, wrapping it in roofing paper and setting it on fire. News of the destruction of the historical relic comes on the very day a Confederate monument in Arizona was covered in tar and feathers. And it comes two days after Trump challenged the press during questioning about his flip-flopping statement on where the blame ought to be placed for the violence in Charlottesville.
“I wonder is it George Washington next week and is it, Thomas Jefferson, the week after? You know, you really do have to ask yourself, where does it stop?” Trump asked reporters at one point during the presser. When he eventually got back around to his Twitter page hours later, Trump doubled down on his remarks by lamenting on the possibility of the nation losing it’s “beautiful” monuments.
