Why would any American be opposed to a statue honoring George Washington? What he did for this country greatly outweighs any personal failings he might have had. He literally gave us everything we have. Without him, we would have nothing—just a banana republic.
After
Donald Trump's victory last November vaulted America's far-right wing to new heights, his wealthy fans in the tech space are eager to erect new monuments to American history and might. Trump himself wants to build a "National Garden of American Heroes" in Washington.
Texas Republicans want to build statues to slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk. And in Austin, a startup founder wants to memorialize the nation's first president in grand fashion.
Austin-based college dropout by the name of Mo Mahmood is attracting backers for a project to build a 650-foot-tall statue of George Washington. Mahmood's startup, More Monuments, has been shopping the project to anyone who will listen. A former University of Delaware student, Mahmood told
Bloomberg that he wants to create an iconic monument that makes people feel proud to be American.
"When you look at my statue, you'll be able to tell it's George Washington, and I think that's important," Mahmood
told Bloomberg. "When they look at it, I want people to feel a sense of hope and optimism."
To date, More Monuments has completed just one work: a 54-foot-tall statue of an oil derrick called
Wellspring of Progress. Unveiled in December and located near Lockhart, just outside of Austin, the monument is a "tribute to the breakthrough oil strike that changed America that made it the number one energy producer ahead of WWI and WWII." The monument cost around $40,000 to complete, according
to a pitch document on More Monuments' website. Venture capitalist Rayyan Islam was one of 125 backers who pitched in to complete the project.
