Last week Governor Ralph Northam announced his plan to remove the iconic statue of Robert E. Lee from Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia. This step will be the beginning of an ambitious leftist Taliban undertaking that calls for the removal of four other statues of Confederate heroes, including that of Jefferson Davis. The now endangered statues have long been beloved tourist attractions that have given Richmond its cultural and historic profile.
The fashionable Virginia Pilot produced a giddily joyous editorial hailing the wrecking exercise as long overdue: “The move would be an extraordinary victory for civil rights activists, whose calls for the removal of that monument and others in this former capital of the Confederacy have been resisted for years.” Supposedly Northam’s decision was driven by the killing of George Floyd and the riots occasioned by that act:
We now understand “that some serious healing has to take place.” Supposedly tearing down historic statues will “heal” something, but I’ve no idea what that is. The Virginia Legislative Black Caucus issued a statement on June 4 that “these structures and monumental symbols have been extremely offensive to Black America and others.” In the next sentence the statues are described as “so hurtful.”
Will the destruction of “these structures and monumental symbols” do anything to improve the life of a single black person? For example, how will it bring down the rate of violent crime among the black underclass in our inner cities?
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Although it is sad to see this part of our history attacked - statues are not our Virginia culture. Flags and buildings are not our culture - though they can be beautiful symbols.
ReplyDeleteThousands of Virginians died in the War between the States (N.Carolina lost the most-my family is in both States) but our culture did not cease. Richmond burned and Virginia survived. Our Virginia culture also survived "Reconstruction" and carpetbaggers. We will survive the current ugliness.
What's really important in cultural wars is information and history passed on to the young. Books, oral history, and blogs like this (thank you Brock!) help to defeat the enemy. My Kurdish friends come to mind.
To all - Be prepared for a time when they turn from statues and come for you and your family.
Best Regards
Red in OleVirginny
Be prepared for a time when they turn from statues and come for you and your family.
DeleteThanks and really.
Until a couple of years ago, a monument to Confederate war dead stood in a large traffic island adjacent to the University of Louisville campus for 120 years. My old fraternity house was located on the adjacent street known at that time as Confederate Place. Due to some complaints to the effete, limp wrist, Democratic (sorry, repeating myself) mayor, the statue was ordered removed.
ReplyDeleteThe small town of Brandenburg, Kentucky, came to the rescue, so the monument didn't sit abandoned in some city storage yard until it "got lost." The monument was moved there at Brandenburg's expense and was re-erected on a spot on the Ohio River.
Black Lives Matter remembered the statue. Yesterday, it made it known that they were coming after the statue. What they found when they got to Brandenburg were approximately 200 armed Kentuckians lined up to protect the monument. BLM decided that attacking that monument wasn't worth opening that particular can of whoop-ass, so it turned tail and left. https://www.whas11.com/article/news/kentucky/crowd-forms-line-in-front-of-confederate-monument-to-keep-protesters-back/417-f3fad530-c384-4836-9296-fcf5b0bfe51a
Thanks.https://freenorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2020/06/200-armed-kentuckians-protected.html
DeleteI hope lynching hasn't been banned as of yet because Northam
ReplyDeletewould be a good candidate to hang from Robert E. Lee's stirrup.
I mean, blackface Northam.
Hang him high. Both Rawls and he were VMI graduates. What disgraces.
DeleteI guess they will burn down Montecello next. Northam needs to be put out of his misery. Virginia is nothing but a subset of DC.
ReplyDeleteReally.
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