Robocop Statue in Detroit

It's been all over the news around here. Someone proposed that Detroit erect a statue of Robocop. I mentioned Robocop's Michigan connection last fall in this post about associating states with movies. It got to be a big enough deal that Detroit's Mayor Bing shot down the idea. Then the fundraising happened, and sure enough they met the goal. The official fundraising site can be found here.

Interestingly enough, the proposed site for the statue is on the grounds of the derelict Michigan Central Station, which I also blogged about before:

"Specifically, the Imagination Station is offering a piece of its property on Roosevelt Park facing Michigan Central Station as Robocop's new home. If this is were Robo goes, this is approximately what his view will be:".

Detroit already has some statues, as any big city would be. Notable ones include the giant fist of Joe Louis, and the Atlas-like statue seen to the right in this postcard from 1997. He's wearing a Detroit Red Wings jersey.

So, it looks like Detroit will remain the number one city for robocopness. It all sounds pretty silly, but it looks like this fundraising effort, and how quickly it worked, will be turned toward more charitable interests to address real human needs.

What other fictional characters can get statues in places (and yes, Robocop is fictional). There are already several existing examples: Mary Tyler Moore in Minneapolis, Rocky in Philadelphia, and Superman in Metropolis. I don't know if Captain Kirk has a statue in his home town in Iowa yet, but I would not be surprised.

Here are some ideas

• A statue of Rose Tyler from "Doctor Who" holding a rose, erected in Tyler, Texas... a city known for roses.
• A statue of J R Ewing in Dallas
• A statue of Mr. Spock in Vulcan, Michigan
  
• A statue of grumpy old men in Wabasha, Minnesota. It might be cheaper, though, to pay a couple of local grouchy guys with a lot of time on their hands to stand there and grump at passing tourists.
  
• Statues of Cullen vampires in Forks, Washington: painted so they sparkle in the sun, of course.
• A statue of Drew Carey in Cleveland. Sure he's real, but the fictional Cleveland department store worker he played in his TV show was also named Drew Carey.

Any more suggestions?

Libya - Uprising in Benghazi

To the right is a 1970s postcard of Benghazi, Libya's "second city". I wonder if it is from before, or after Muhammar Khadaffy took power?

Not long after the revolution/ouster/rebellion in Egypt, there was talk of whether or not it would happen in Libya. I kind of doubted it, since Libya had seemed so quiet lately.


Khadaffy is a scary individual. His "Green" ideology is a combinination of the worst aspects of theocratic Islam and socialism. He seems to have patterned himself after Mao, the worst mass murderer in history, even borrowing one of the terms Mao used for a genocidal program, "cultural revolution". He fancies himself as sort of a demi-god, having written his own sort of Bible which he forces people to read, and putting giant pictures of himself everywhere (always a very bad sign). Still, he has been quiet lately, backing away from terrorist activities.

Then "Colonel" Khadaddy stepped into the fray, urging Arabs to rise up against Jews. Nothing happened, though Israel was on the alert for this.

Instead, the the "talk" was right, the and uprising happened in Libya instead.

I have a friend from Libya. When the news came out of riots in Benghazi, I immediately thought of him and his family. He happens to be in the US right now, but he has friends and family in that city.

Now, the uprising has claimed hundreds of lives. When my friend communicated with me from Libya, there was no mention of the dictator. You have to be careful in a totalitarian country. Now that he is outside of Libya, he has strong words about Khadaffy.

I hope and pray that the carnage there ends now, and that none of my friend's family and friends were hurt. And that the deaths so far as not been in vain, and that something happens to improve Libya's situation. 40 years under a tyrant's boot is 40 years too long.

Addendum: In the latest news today, the rebellion (or revolution?) has hit Tripoli, with a report that Khadaffy has fled, and many hundreds of civilians have been executed.