A push is on to remove Confederate statues in Tennessee and replace them with statues of country star Dolly Parton.
Alex Parsons created a change.org petition directed at Tennessee governor Bill Lee and the state government that has collected just under 5,000 signatures in its first four days.
“Let's replace the statues of men who sought to tear this country apart with a monument to the woman who has worked her entire life to bring us closer together,” wrote Parsons, who goes on to sing the praises of Parton.
“Dolly Parton has given more to this country and this state than those confederate officers could ever have hoped to take away.”
Tennessee politician Jeremy Faison has also mentioned Parton as a possible replacement for a bust of Confederate general and early Ku Klux Klan leader Nathan Bedford Forrest that sits in the state capitol building. Fellow Republican Ted Cruz tweeted his support, calling it "a win-win."
While not mentioning Parton, singer Taylor Swift weighed in on the statue discussion in her home state.
“As a Tennessean, it makes me sick that there are monuments standing in our state that celebrate racist historical figures who did evil things,” she tweeted last week. “We need to retroactively change the status of people who perpetuated hideous patterns of racism from ‘heroes’ to ‘villains.’ And villains don’t deserve statues.”
Some people have other ideas.
"It doesn’t feel right that nearly all the while people I know are talking about replacing all the confederate monuments with statues of like Dolly Parton and s**t," one person opined on Twitter. "Why aren’t we fighting to get them replaced with powerful historical figures from the Black community??"
Writer Lauren Hough tweeted: "I believe my Dolly Parton bonafides are well-established but if you’re going with singers TINA TURNER IS FROM TENNESSEE."
Parton, who was born in Locust Ridge, Tennessee, has not yet commented on the idea.