{"id":1320,"date":"2017-08-16T11:43:00","date_gmt":"2017-08-16T15:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/beemandave.com\/beemanblog\/?p=1320"},"modified":"2017-09-06T14:30:17","modified_gmt":"2017-09-06T18:30:17","slug":"why-should-confederate-statues-be-removed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beemandave.com\/beemanblog\/blog\/2017\/08\/16\/why-should-confederate-statues-be-removed\/","title":{"rendered":"Why SHOULD Confederate Statues be removed?"},"content":{"rendered":"
Greetings and Salutations;<\/div>\n
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Neo Nazi protesters at Charlottesville, VA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
This week has seen madness in this Great Land that has not happened in decades. \u00a0 The Events in Charlottesville, VA, are easily found on the Net, in all their disgusting detail. \u00a0 I may touch on them in another entry, though. \u00a0 Here, \u00a0I want to talk about the excuse used by the Neo Nazis for their attack upon the city. \u00a0 This was the removal of the statue honoring Confederate General \u00a0Robert E. Lee from the public square.<\/div>\n
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I have no doubt that General Lee was a brave man and a courageous warrior. \u00a0I believe he might well have been an ethical person too. \u00a0However, \u00a0 he was fighting to destroy this great nation, in support of a culture that felt it right and proper to own another human being, \u00a0looking up them as sub-human, and nothing more than a tool to be used and abused until they were useless, \u00a0then to be discarded and replaced. \u00a0 He and the entire Confederacy, \u00a0were \u00a0wrong. \u00a0They fought for their cause and lost…perhaps because their cause was Evil, and God was on the the side of the Union, \u00a0perhaps because their economy \u00a0did not support a war machine as well as the North did…It does not matter. \u00a0The bottom line is that they lost, and their attempts to destroy America failed.<\/div>\n
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There are many that, today, \u00a0still are fighting that war. \u00a0They grumble under their breath about the “War of Northern Aggression” \u00a0and “The South Shall Rise Again”. \u00a0They often display the stars and bars – the pseudo-Confederate flag that has come to represent that time. \u00a0 Many of them are simply young, and ignorant. \u00a0They have no idea of the reality of what they are praising meant. \u00a0Some are still stained with the Evil of racism, White Supremacy, and White Nationalism \u00a0that drove much of the conflict in those bloody years of 1861-1865. \u00a0 These latter folks are the real danger to America. \u00a0 The ignorant idealists can be educated, and when presented with the reality of that time, \u00a0no longer support it or idealize it. \u00a0 However, the distressing number of Racists and Neo Nazis that this administration has enticed out from under the rocks is a sign that America has a LONG way to go yet. \u00a0 It was this latter group that marched through Charlottesville, \u00a0chanting Nazi Slogans, \u00a0carrying torches, \u00a0and, clashing with the counter protesters.<\/div>\n
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So..Why are we removing the Statues of Confederate Generals from the Public Square? \u00a0 Many of these were put up well after the end of the War,\u00a0 beginning in 1917 , through\u00a0 the 1950s and 1960s, \u00a0as a reaction by “The Cult of the Lost Cause<\/a>”\u00a0 to the Civil Rights marches and attempts on the part of citizens of color to gain the equal recognition and protections they were due under the Constitution.\u00a0 This was the beginning of the enactment of “Jim Crow” laws around the country. \u00a0 The purpose of these memorials was not to remember\u00a0 the Civil War,\u00a0 but to bring fear to the hearts of people of color.\u00a0 They were there to remind all those people that the people that fought to keep them in the dehumanization and bondage of Slavery were not only still around,\u00a0 but were, in many cases, still in power. \u00a0 Also,\u00a0 they are glorification of a failed society. \u00a0They are honoring the Generals who were Traitors to the United States. \u00a0To leave them up in a position of honor in the Public Square, is not only to continue that oppression of people of color,\u00a0 but, could be\u00a0 acknowledging that perhaps these people were right…and had a point worth supporting. \u00a0 They did not. \u00a0They were on the wrong side of Society, and because of that were\u00a0 defeated.\u00a0 While the statues should be preserved, \u00a0they should be tucked away in museums along with the other historical debris of time, \u00a0 surrounded with evidence of what actually caused the Civil War, \u00a0and why it failed.<\/div>\n
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\u00a0The Mayor of New Orleans addressed this recently, \u00a0in talking about why that city was removing \u00a0its statues of Confederate Generals. \u00a0I think he put it very eloquently, and it is worth reading his full presentation. \u00a0However, \u00a0here is a video of an excerpt of it that really strikes home.<\/div>\n
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