Removal of Confederate Monuments

[Gencor]

(05-01-2017 11:54 AM)L Verge Wrote:  Politicians have made bad decisions based on race here in the U.S. for nearly 400 years, and it has cost us dearly. It will be impossible to erase all evidence of slavery and racism throughout that period, and I feel that attempts to do so only stir the pot of hatred. Tearing down statues will not solve the problems of the inner city (drugs, unemployment, poor education). And, many of these problems hold down citizens of other races also.

I grew up in a segregated world, but my family had many black friends and were around them daily since my uncle ran the country store. I began teaching when the schools in my county were being desegregated via busing. The black students in my school were just as angry about being bused to a white school as their white counterparts were. Despite that, I have seen great strides being made, and my county in Maryland happens to be the home to the highest economic class of African Americans in America.

It has only been recently that Marylander Roger B. Taney's statue has been removed from Annapolis - despite the protest that Taney has been judged as one of the best Constitutional defenders in our history. That statue did nothing to hinder economic prosperity obviously. None of the ones that New Orleans (and other cities) is proposing to move have hindered progress either. What's next? Tear down Mt. Vernon, Monticello, Stratford Hall, Jackson's Hermitage, Arlington House, Surratt House?

Work on where the current problems exist. Use the "destruction" money instead to fix those problems. Teach the masses to walk by those statues with head held high, knowing that a good education - and the good use of such - overcame the hardships of yesteryear.

I'm climbing down from my soap box now and waiting for lashes from the cat o'nine tails...

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You will get no argument from me. I agree with you. I actually believe that education or the lack of it is what is contributing to this problem. I said this earlier, in another post, the lack of education, the teaching of American History is lost in our schools today. I think that school curriculum today is not geared to broad education and it is leaving out so much that people only get their education on these subjects by the latest publications and in most cases, they are not correct.

I don't want to get on my soap box either, Laurie, but the best example of this is our own President. He has no clue that people have questioned why we fought the Civil War and he actually thinks that Andrew Jackson played a big part in it. Laurie, he lives in the White House!

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(05-02-2017 11:00 AM)Wild Bill Wrote:  There is one thing to remember about the Civil War that cost at least a combined 750 dead according to the latest figures. Namely, there was no peace treaty. There was a cease fire. This lack of protocol has cost the North dearly. It has given the white South an opportunity to act without admitting to surrender. Abetted by a North that sympathized more with the South on race, the North has failed to get the South to admit to surrender.

Indeed, Reconstruction was ended with the North withdrawing its troops and going home, allowing the South to set up a segregated society. For the next 100 years the North tried in vain to "Force" the South to knuckle under, despite the fact that the North failed to pass five or six voting rights acts to be supervised by Federal agents or the Army and no civil rights acts (in the South they are called Force Acts) from 1873 to a meagre effort in 1957.

Then came Lyndon Johnson as president and aided by the murder of President JFK and the legislative ability of Republican Senator Everett Dirksen of Illinois, Johnson shamed the North into passing a Public Accommodations (Civil Rights) Act in 1964 and a Voting Rights Act in 1965. This is frequently called the Second Reconstruction, and at first it has suffered from the same foot-dragging as the First, as Northerners ducked behind the Southern segs like William Fulbright for the opposition to the war in Viet Nam and behind Sam Ervin for the Watergate episode. The Southerners knew Congressional rules better than the Northerners and how to prolong debate and delay votes.

But now the Yankees want to show they won the Civil War, 150 years late, of course. So aided by Southern Scalawags like Mayor Landrieu they strike at the Confederate flag and statues. They are as much a heritage of the white South than an aberration as ahistorical moderns want us to believe. It has taken 50 years since the 1964 and 1965 Civil Rights Acts for the Black Revolution to gain enough steam to scare white politicians into supporting this nonsense and erasing our Southern history and culture. And you still have not got your peace treaty.

Deo vindice.

Amen! All of this is costing the tax payers of New Orleans a small fortune and to store them on the land that Mitch is talking about is not going to be as simple as you make it sound. We are all very upset about this because Mitch is only putting a band aide on a problem that has a much deeper roots than this will solve. New Orleans, along with Natchez, Mississippi are probably two of the most historical monuments left in the south that serve as reminders of life both before and after the Civil War and historians and preservationist have worked very hard and raised millions of dollars to preserve this rich history. We are all very upset with Mitch and the way he has handled all of this. There were other ways to address this and you can bet his father would have never handled this the way he has. Mitch is looking for votes, not history or New Orleans preservation. Things are different in New Orleans, since Hurricane Katrina and the demographics of the city and the parish have changed a great deal. Mitch is reacting to pressure that is purely political and we all know it. That is why there is so much protest to this action.