Dolly Parton has responded to a proposal put forward by Tennessee State Representative John Mark Windle, calling for a statue of Dolly to be put up on the Tennessee Capitol grounds. Over 25,000 people also signed a petition calling for “all confederate statues in Tennessee” to be replaced with Dolly, but Dolly herself doesn’t think the time is right. “I want to thank the Tennessee legislature for their consideration of a bill to erect a statue of me on the Capitol grounds,” she writes. “I am honored and humbled by their intention but I have asked the leaders of the state legislature to remove the bill from any and all consideration.”

“Given all that is going on in the world,” she continues, “I don’t think putting me on a pedestal is appropriate at this time. I hope, though, that somewhere down the road several years from now or perhaps after I’m gone if you still feel I deserve it, then I’m certain I will stand proud in our great State Capitol as a grateful Tennessean. In the meantime, I’ll continue to try to do good work to make this great state proud.”

The New York Times published an editorial, “Give Dolly Parton a Statue Already,” earlier this week, while Rolling Stone published “Why Dolly Parton Doesn’t Deserve a Nashville Statue — Yet” last month.

Meanwhile, there already is a statue of Dolly on the lawn of the Sevier County Courthouse in Tennessee, not far from the Dollywood amusement park in Pigeon Forge.