SAVE THE GENERAL!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Ware_Lawton
Hooray for! the NS!
The thing about the people in this city is they always have to spend the most money for the simplest thing, and take the longest, most ponderous way to do things.
Case in Point- the General Wayne Statue downtown. At one time, it was also green, tarnished, a disgrace. ditto for the lady liberty statue on top of the courthouse.
The Fort Wayne way to restore the statue of General Lawton, David foster, etc, wuld be to form a committee, Hire lawyers, accountants, insurance agents, to form a 501c3 non-profit, have dozens of tedious meetings, on how to raise the money to clean, restore, and replace it. spend hundreds of dollars in postage., stationary, etc shopping for art, and historic preservation grant money, hold fancy pants party fundraisers (never a Casino night, of course) And then shipping a statue to some out of town( NEVER LOCAL) HIGH PRICED "mega-corp- clean statues are us" place, far off, ship it away, wait a year( backlog, you know, and with any luck we may see the statues back in time for some appropriate date, and time, significant to the honoree.
The ROACH WAY- would be for ME to ride my bike to the auto shop store, buy a few wire brushes, and some spray on, spray off tarnish remover, take a ladder, and a cooler full of beer, and spend the next 5 weeks, or so, wire brushing off the crud from the General Lawton statue( its closest to home).
and then use a 5 gallon bucket to rinse off each layer of crud- filled from the nearby Lakeside Park pond.
Or find a bunch of unemployed IPFW Art students, load the lawton statue into a truck, take it to behind the art building, un load it, bead blast it, etc, or ivy tech body shop class- ( is old metal, just like an antique car, more or less)
then when the Statue was down to a clean layer, ready to receive tarnish resistant coating, and protective finish- again, a few cans of top grade rustoleum primer, and then some nice gold/ bronze/ metallic ( metalflake? lol) Paint- again from my corner Hardware/Paint shop; and spray away
Voila- some sweat, muscle, beer, and spray paint, and the job is finished, for under 200 bucks, i bet- on site.
I of course would have a bucket, and sign nearby- DONATIONS ACCEPTED( will work for beer or reefer)- who likes to work for free?
The super cool deluxe el ROACHO cheep restoration would be to paint up the general, with authentic paints, so he is wearing a real looking Union blue army Uniform, and flesh tone face paint, etc. theres plenty of pictures on google, to see what paint by numbers should be.
This super CHEEP restoration , would of course last as long as the paint does, and then it sould be easy to buy some spray paint every other year, a couple hours, and have THE GENERAL looking respectable, not like some abandoned, forgotten war hero, and veteran. but isnt that what always happens to war heros,and veterans- cast off like lepers when they no longer need you?
I'm surrounded by idiots.

more "general" trivia
Brig. general Henry ware lawton is one of the more interesting characters from fort wayne, and was everywhere in the world, from the civil war, to the phillipine american war. he was the 19th century equivalent of MacArthur, in the phillipines.
Lawton was awarded the CONGRESSIONAL MEDAL OF HONOR. Served with Col Scion S Bass, of the "bloody 30th" infantry regiment, Shiloh, april 1862( aka Pittsburg landing) Mississippi.
Seems he had a few run ins with the laws, for drinking- LLIKELY WELL DOCUMENTED EARLY CASE OF ptsd- from civil war Battles.

Several footntes, and mentions in Bert Griswolds History of fort Wayne" ( i have my own personal copy, btw).
He was dissed a few times by the local papers of his time ( i know how that feels)

Heres some more Lawton General Trivia( no pun intended..)(Sir!)


google web:
http://www.google.com/#hl=en&sugexp=ldymls&xhr=t&q=lawton+manila+philippines&cp=14&pf=p&sclient=psy&site=&source=hp&aq=0v&aqi=&aql=&oq=lawton+manila+&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=62b6f7449af4d0a1

google images:
http://www.google.com/#hl=en&sugexp=ldymls&xhr=t&q=lawton+manila+philippines&cp=14&pf=p&sclient=psy&site=&source=hp&aq=0v&aqi=&aql=&oq=lawton+manila+&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=62b6f7449af4d0a1

wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Ware_Lawton
also - see links to lawton Oklahoma, and lawton , havana cuba.

General Lawton served with Theodore Roosevelt, with the "rough riders" in cuba.
Find the general!
http://www.esacademic.com/pictures/eswiki/82/RoughRiders.jpeg
I'm guessing the man right behind TR's left shoulder. note the mustache...

MORE PHOTO LINKS:
http://culbertsonmansion.net/Lawton/photo/

Lawton Army expedition to find Geronimo
http://www.google.com/images?um=1&hl=en&safe=off&biw=994&bih=607&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=lawton+remington+geronimo&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=

Lawton in artist frederick remington paintings:
http://www.google.com/images?um=1&hl=en&safe=off&biw=994&bih=607&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=lawton+remington&btnG=Search&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=