11bravo

Frank T Loc: New York, NY

There are no statues of Hitler and thats the reason no one remembers WWII.

Ysarex Loc: St. Louis

A compromise in lieu of complete removal would be to tell the truth. In response to efforts to remove a statue the disingenuous cry goes up that they're trying to erase history -- we just want to protect our heritage. Then we should do that.

The fact is there are very few, almost no true Confederate monuments and those that do exist are located in cemeteries. They were placed shortly after the war ended. The overwhelming majority of the statues that are the focus of current removal efforts were installed in the early 20th century -- 1920s and 30s. Many have direct connections to the KKK.

The original KKK was short lived and by the early 1870s it died out. Nathan Forrest one of the original founders and the Klan's first Grand Wizard advocated it's disbanding. The KKK was born again in 1915 amid the creation and solidification of Jim Crow laws and organized efforts to control the ballot box. One of the re-born KKK's favorite activities was the placement of monuments in towns across the South as territorial markers. It's not an accident that there are more statues of Nathan Forrest than anyone else.

The statue may say something like "erected by The Daughters of the Confederacy" but that was a front in that the money that paid the bill came from the KKK. Read James Loewen.

So here's the compromise: Tell the real history about the statue and who it depicts by affixing to each statue a really big bronze plaque. The towns records back to the 20s are probably pretty good. Find out who paid the bill. Get family names and KKK affiliations on the plaque and then get the history on the plaque of the person the statue depicts. If it's a statute for example of Forrest make sure and note he was a war criminal, slave trader and founding member of the KKK. Weld the plaque to the statue. If they take off the plaque then take down the statue.

Joe

SuperflyTNT Loc: Manassas VA

Every declaration of secession from those states explicitly stated that it was all about slavery. Yes, some say it was about economics, but it was the economics of slavery.
As or the “states rights” argument. That’s bogus and came about much later as an attempt to whitewash the reason for the war. As a matter of fact, if your read South Carolina’s declaration, the first state to secede, it clearly comes out AGAINST state rights as they complain about federal law not being enforced when northern states refused to return escaped slaves to their owners in the south.

SuperflyTNT Loc: Manassas VA

Also, nobody flew the confederate flag after the war. It was largely forgotten until 1948 when it became a symbol for the Dixiecrats in direct response to Truman trying to advance Civil Rights.

Bill 45

First of all who lost the Civil War? After WWII America did not want a Germany that look and act like the South after the Civil War. That one reason why anything to do with the Nazis was outlaw. It taking a 150 years to put to rest " Lose Cause" myth. Statue are part of the myth and that why their have to go.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

They removed the statue of Christopher Columbus in Columbus, Ohio.

Begs the question:
Will they also rename the city since that's for who the city is named?

ragon Loc: Wisconsin

I am 100% in agreement with you on this. I was an army brat living in Texas during WWll, but I'm native to Wisconsin. These ignorant b****rds pulled down and beheaded a statue of Col. Hans Christian Heg on our state capital lawn. Heg was an abolitionist and commanded the 15th Wisconsin Volunteer Regiment and 3rd Brigade of the 1st Division, XX Corps, Army of the Cumberland, during the Civil War. He died at the age of 33 from being gut shot at Chickamauga. I had ancestors on both sides during the conflict. This was a war that pitted brother against brother. After it was over reunions were held that joined veterans of both sides. Slavery ended long ago, but states rights and individual rights are still in danger. And all of this for a man who had a criminal past.

HardwareGuy

How do you and other southerners reconcile that the country then free from British rule that the colonists fought for, was not even 100 years old when the confederates wanted to tear it all apart?

canonclicker

Before you start a political conversation you should go to YouTube, search 'George Soros Interview - 2014' and 'George Soros Interview - 2017'. Listen to HIM talk! Watch whose he's with! Associate HIS friends with what's happening today.

Then read the Holy Bible starting with Matthew 24 and sincerely pray for America and the rest of this planet!

ragon Loc: Wisconsin

It's not so much as wanting to tear the country apart as it is they felt they had to leave the Union.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

My father's, mother's family in Western Kentucky (the Penns who migrated from Pennsyvania in the 1790's) had 6 members who fought in the war, 3 on each side. The Confederates never owned any slaves and were "States Righters" and due to religion against slavery in a mild way. Two of the Unionists owned no slaves and were for preserving the Union, they were also against slavery because of religion. One Unionist was given two slaves (a married couple) as a wedding present by his wife's family. He offered them freedom but they thought they would be safer from the law as his property (not that uncommon a belief). So he educated them, made the husband his manager and representative traveling on business over several states. The wife became his wife's companion, maid etc and managed the farm for her. The children of the slave couple were registered as free people and raised with the white children, educated etc. in a country school run by the two women together. As soon as Lincoln announced the Emancipation Proclamation the two slaves were registered as free people even though as slaves in Kentucky (Union State) and owned by a Unionist it didn't apply to them. (The proclamation only applied to slaves in Confederate states and owned by Confederate supporters - Union states and Union supporter's slaves were not covered by it.)

And one of my Great-Great Uncles refused to join either side because he didn't want to risk fighting family. He told the Confederate recruiters to leave him alone and he dodged the draft for the Union Army for the whole war. A story made it into a local history book of the war written by the local newspaper editor in the 20th century that once when a Union Cavalry patrol came by the farm very late in the war looking for draft dodgers and horses (both sides would "buy" horses when they needed them by just telling people they were buying them and giving them an IOU and taking them. The man hid high up in the rafters of the barn and his wife, a tiny women of only 5' 1" stood in front of the door with a little Colt .32 pocket pistol and told them they weren't taking her horse (raised as a spoiled pet it's whole life) and they weren't searching the barn for her husband because they "might steal things". The Union troops were so astonished at the tiny woman facing them down with a gun that was almost a toy to them that they broke into laughter, told her anyone as brave as her deserved to have her way and rode off leaving the horses and her husband still hidden in the barn. The war ended a few months later. Of the six that rode off to war one of the Confederates died and the family never found out just where nor got his body home for burial.

And after the war the whole family healed and became family again.

You need to understand that pre-Civil War many people thought of themselves as citizens of their state first and the nation second unless they were overseas when dealing with other countries. One veteran of the war wrote a book after the war where he pointed out that pre-war people said "The United States are..."(plural) and after the war it became "The United States is..." (singular). He said the nation went from an "are" to an "is". A nation where before that people could conceive of breaking up the nation and afterwards became a nation where the vast majority could not conceive of breaking up the nation. The author of that book was a Tennessee Confederate who was anti slavery but an ardent "States Righter" before the war.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Sadly, I have to agree. This divisiveness is the real enemy. You would have thought that this latest Covid crisis would have caused Americans to unite, but no, just another excuse for disagreement and name-calling.

Our downtown has been essentially destroyed, both by vandalism and looting and destruction and desecration of almost every statue at our capital (Confederate and others alike. The statue that stood in front of the capital and is now destroyed was 125 years old ). Everyone loses. Complete anarchy and mob rule and the result is that what was once a vibrant city with an event almost every weekend, is now a ghost town with every (broken) window boarded up. No one will open a new business (and many will not rebuild the destroyed old ones), no one will hire workers (other than glass companies), no major company will relocate downtown, no one wants to go there, and no one will buy a condo or an apartment there. Everyone loses and NOTHING was gained. The destruction of both our history and our future, and none of the perpetrators seem to get IT. So much anger there is no room for rational thought or civility or... No one believes the police can or will protect them anymore, and short barrel large magazine capacity shotguns for sale are now as rare as toilet paper.

repleo Loc: Boston

I think it is time to dissolve the United States. The experiment has failed. It is ridiculous to think that a population that is so divided over basic issues like abortion, guns, face masks, walls, monuments etc can ever be 'united'. Let States go their own way. States already manage most of things that touch our everyday lives - schools, roads, police etc. They can manage our tax dollars better than Washington. Federal taxes are a form of socialism - take from the wealthy states and give to the basket cases. Keep the money at home and eliminate the Federal middleman.

Hangingon Loc: NW North Dakota

Face it. It will probably be shown that much of the trouble is started by paid agitators. Percentagewise the "protestors" are a small part of Americans. I was told today that around 40 "protestors" in Fargo, ND were identified as not being from the region. The residents of several other communities were able to control the protests. It just seems that they garner too much sympathy from the news media.