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AZDuck's Considered Opinion on Southern Monuments

AZDuckAZDuck Member Posts: 15,381
edited August 2017 in Tug Tavern
As a son of the South, I took a lot of pride in some of these kinds of monuments as a kid. In particular, there's a monument to Dick Dowling for the Battle of Bolivar Pass which should never be torn down. Defense of Texas from invaders is always a good thing. Also too, the Alamo, San Jacinto, Goliad, the "Come and Take It" flag from Gonzalez (although it's been profaned).

Likewise, if Virginians like their Robert E. Lee statues, they should be able to keep them. People in Charlottesville didn't like them anymore. It's really nobody else's business at that poont. I'm sure that Lynchburg and plenty of other towns in Virginia are still chock-full of Lee statues and Confederate symbols.

However, everyone should have a gimlet eye for Southern monuments which were erected as symbols of white supremacy during the Jim Crow period and especially post WW2, when, Southern "heritage" was becoming code for white supremacy and their exponents' and their desire to keep darkie down.

General Lee himself is a contradictory figure. Owned slaves, did not want Virginia to secede, but when it did, he followed his state. His plantation in Arlington was seized by the Federal government and turned into a war cemetery for Union soldiers, now known as Arlington National Cemetery. Tequilla referenced "Washington and Lee University." The "Lee" is because he served as the university's president after the Civil War, and his management helped prevent the closure of the institution.

Lee himself did not want Confederate symbology at his funeral, and disapproved of it generally.

Put another way, there's ONE monument to Field Marshal Erwin Rommel in Germany, despite his unquestioned talents as a leader and his opposition to Hitler. That monument is located where Rommel committed suicide rather than face trial by a Nazi kangaroo court.

And yes, the Rebellion of Treason in Defense of Slavery is roughly akin to Nazism on the good<---->bad spectrum. Anyone saying it was about state's rights needs to read the goddam Confederate constitution or the writings of any secessionists.

People in whose states and towns Civil War monuments are located can best decide how and whether they should continue to be displayed. If they are displayed, IMO, they should be accompanied with an interpretive plaque describing the role of slavery in the Confederacy, post-Civil War Reconstruction, Jim Crow, and the Civil Rights movement which helps to illustrate how the monument came to be.

TL;DR- if they like their racist monuments, they can keep them

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Comments

  • Pitchfork51Pitchfork51 Member Posts: 26,883
    Rommell definitely had the coolest nickname though.
  • AZDuckAZDuck Member Posts: 15,381
    Swaye said:

    While we are tearing down monuments can we get rid of anything related to that fucking pig Andrew Jackson.

    I'm in. FTG.
  • Pitchfork51Pitchfork51 Member Posts: 26,883
    edited August 2017
    Swaye said:

    While we are tearing down monuments can we get rid of anything related to that fucking blowhard @Tequilla .

  • YellowSnowYellowSnow Moderator, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 35,341 Founders Club
    edited August 2017
    Swaye said:

    While we are tearing down monuments can we get rid of anything related to that fucking pig Andrew Jackson.

    Fucking Scots-Irish white trash. We should have just kept electing classy Englishman from Virginia and Massachusetts.
  • whlinderwhlinder Member Posts: 4,735 Standard Supporter
    Being born in the north (phew) but growing up just across the river in the South in a progressive city, we were always taught in elementary school and on field trips that the memorial statue in town was facing south because Virginia fought for the Confederacy and it commemorated the dead Alexandrians.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appomattox_(statue)

    A short way from the statue is a stone historic marker with a bronze plaque upon which is engraved the following:

    "THE CONFEDERATE STATUE

    The unarmed Confederate soldier standing in
    the intersection of Washington and Prince
    Streets marks the location where units from
    Alexandria left to join the Confederate Army
    on May 24, 1861. The soldier is facing the
    battlefields to the South where his comrades
    fell during the War Between the States. The
    names of those Alexandrians who died in service
    for the Confederacy are inscribed on the base
    of the statue. The title of the sculpture is
    “Appomattox” by M. Casper Buberl.

    The statue was erected in 1889 by the Robert E. Lee Camp
    United Confederate Veterans."



    A few years ago Alexandria, now even more liberal, began to discuss tearing the statue down or moving it. It has not gone anywhere, yet. I'm generally ok with it as it is since as far as I can tell there isn't hiding in this area from the fact that the war was over slavery. Similarly no one hides on Mt. Vernon that Washington owned slaves or in Monticello that Jefferson did.

    I also remember very distinctly some quiz contest I did in elementary school (team format) where the answer to a question was The Battle of Bull Run and our team answered it as the Battle of Manassas, because that was what came to mind and we were taught both the Union and Confederate names for many battles. We were initially told we were wrong and then appealed and were given credit for getting it right. Confederate battle names matter!

    The discussions are starting to occur about changing school names which were named for Confederates.
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/fairfax-school-board-votes-to-change-name-of-jeb-stuart-high-school/2017/07/28/b5c45d44-7323-11e7-8f39-eeb7d3a2d304_story.html?utm_term=.9f5b59a403b6
  • BearsWiinBearsWiin Member Posts: 5,033
    edited August 2017
    I tend to think that what Mayor Landrieu said about Confederate monuments in NOLA applies to all of them. If you haven't watched or read this speech, you should.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j81MkNgnXuY

    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/23/opinion/mitch-landrieus-speech-transcript.html?_r=0



  • Pitchfork51Pitchfork51 Member Posts: 26,883
    Why didn't they do this shit like 100 years ago
  • YellowSnowYellowSnow Moderator, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 35,341 Founders Club
    BearsWiin said:

    I tend to think that what Mayor Landrieu said about Confederate monuments in NOLA applies to all of them. If you haven't watched or read this speech, you should.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j81MkNgnXuY

    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/23/opinion/mitch-landrieus-speech-transcript.html?_r=0



    The Lincoln second inauguration quote at the end was a nice touch.
  • GrundleStiltzkinGrundleStiltzkin Member Posts: 61,496 Standard Supporter
    Is that Lenin statue still in Fremont?
  • YellowSnowYellowSnow Moderator, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 35,341 Founders Club
    BearsWiin said:

    I tend to think that what Mayor Landrieu said about Confederate monuments in NOLA applies to all of them. If you haven't watched or read this speech, you should.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j81MkNgnXuY

    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/23/opinion/mitch-landrieus-speech-transcript.html?_r=0



    I can't really find fault with Landrieus logic and agree on snuffing out the "Cult of the lost Cause" but to play devil's advocate, where do we draw the line? Is the line of demarcation those that committed treason- i.e., Lee, Jackson, Davis, etc? What about those who participated in and profited from the Peculiar Institution. Do we need to remove the Washington/Jefferson monuments?
  • Dude61Dude61 Member, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 1,249 Swaye's Wigwam

    Is that Lenin statue still in Fremont?

    Statues that represent evil, hatred and bigotry, but are otherwise politically correct are allowed to stand.
  • UWhuskytskeetUWhuskytskeet Member Posts: 7,113
    Dude61 said:

    Is that Lenin statue still in Fremont?

    Statues that represent evil, hatred and bigotry, but are otherwise politically correct are allowed to stand.
    Is it in front of a courthouse?
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