By Daisy Luther
Removing monuments from the Civil War to erase history is a mistake.
This won’t be a popular opinion, and I’m okay with that. Because for now, we still have freedom of speech.
While I can understand why some people would strongly disagree, I’d like to respectfully offer a different perspective. My opinion that those monuments should be left alone isn’t because I support the horrible things that have been done in our history. It’s exactly the opposite.
Every country’s history has a dark spot in it. More than one, if we’re being honest. But the fact that we aren’t still mired in those dark places means that we have made strides toward becoming better. Erasing history, though, is a dangerous path because it means that the truth becomes something malleable that has been created instead of recorded.
Rewriting history is positively Orwellian, and a terribly dangerous path.
After President Trump won the election, his opponents began snapping up copies of 1984 so quickly that Amazon sold out of the classic. At that point, I was hopeful that it meant people would find some common ground.
Amazon has sold out of copies of George Orwell’s authoritarian classic, 1984, and they won’t have more until Feb. 2nd. The book was the number one bestseller on Tuesday and Wednesday. The publishing company, Penguin, is rushing more copies to print.
This surge in sales came after Trump’s senior adviser Kellyanne Conway used the creepy term “alternative facts” to explain away some misleading statements in White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer’s statement to the press. (source)
Alas, my hope was short lived.
All sorts of breathless articles were penned, comparing President Trump to Big Brother. (This one, for example.) But then, something else happened. And it isn’t good.
1984 has become an instruction manual.
Despite the initial furor, now it seems like these folks have decided to instead use 1984 as a how-to manual. As you watch people destroying monuments of Southern Civil War generals, renaming streets, and planning to deface the side of a mountain with their faces on it, let this chilling quote ring in your ears.
“Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.” (George Orwell, 1984)
Without our history, good or bad, who are we? If we don’t remember where we came from, how can we hope to continuously improve? If we can’t learn from the mistakes of the past, and if the truth is “created” by the vocal minority, then how does the truth even exist anymore?
History teaches us important lessons.
We’ve all heard that quote, “Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.” So what happens when we completely erase it?
When my daughter and I took a road trip to explore American history last year, we stopped and visited many of these historic markers that are now pending demolition. We discussed the hypocrisy of a man who was responsible for resounding words of freedom in the US Constitution keeping hundreds of slaves. Her curiosity was piqued by the old homesteads. Her heart was saddened by walking into old slave quarters and seeing the shocking difference of their cramped quarters to the huge mansions beside them. Nothing you can read about in a book could possibly compare to walking through those doors and seeing the real thing.
We looked up information about General Lee and General Jackson. We learned of the famous battles where thousands of Americans from the North and the South died. When in California, we visited Manzanar, the site of an internment camp for Americans of Japanese heritage. She learned so much about our country’s ugly past and about how our ideals as a nation were changed for the better.
We also spent a lot of time at various civil rights monuments, in particular, the Harriet Tubman Museum and the Underground Railroad Byway. (My daughter has been fascinated by Tubman since she read her biography in third grade.) After seeing the old plantations and the slave quarters, Tubman’s heroism was suddenly writ large. Would her heroic acts have made so great an impression if my daughter hadn’t learned the backstory? Heroism doesn’t exist in a vacuum.
Erasing the negative part of history doesn’t make it go away Sanitizing the facts doesn’t mean that they never happened. It just means no one can learn from them.
Our very language is being rewritten.
Everything has now become so politically correct that most of us have no idea what to say in certain situations, lest we be chastised as horrible bigots. The schools are systematically brainwashing children and the indoctrination is completed in our colleges and universities.
“Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing.” (George Orwell, 1984)
By manipulating language, opinions are manipulated, as is a sense of right and wrong.
Newspeak is real.
“Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it. Every concept that can ever be needed will be expressed by exactly one word, with its meaning rigidly defined and all its subsidiary meanings rubbed out and forgotten.
By 2050, earlier, probably – all real knowledge of Oldspeak will have disappeared. The whole literature of the past will have been destroyed. Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, Byron – they’ll exist only in Newspeak versions, not merely changed into something different, but actually changed into something contradictory of what they used to be. Even the literature of the Party will change. Even the slogans will change. How could you have a slogan like ‘freedom is slavery’ when the concept of freedom has been abolished? The whole climate of thought will be different. In fact there will be no thought, as we understand it now. Orthodoxy means not thinking – not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness.” (George Orwell, 1984)
How can anyone not see this is happening right before our very eyes.
It isn’t Donald Trump who is bringing in an Orwellian future. It’s the rabid politically-correct thought police.
Where will it end?
It isn’t likely to end with the removal of icons related to the Civil War. Ajamu Baraka, the Green Party’s vice-presidential candidate in 2016 suggests that all memories of Trump, Washington, and Jefferson should also be erased.
If you want to remove symbols of white supremacy why are you limiting it to confederacy? Yes Trump, Jefferson & Washington must be next.
— Ajamu Baraka (@ajamubaraka) August 16, 2017
Good, bad, and ugly, this is part of our national story. Tearing down everything that was related to the sordid parts doesn’t mean that they never happened.
I strongly denounce these groups who are filled with hatred for their fellow Americans.
While I believe these historic monuments should not be destroyed, I certainly could never align myself with the neo-Nazis, the KKK, and the Alt-Right people who are protecting them, because they’re doing so out of hatred and a misplaced sense of glory. Nor would I ever align myself with the Antifa, the most ironic group ever in existence that proclaims to be against fascism but noisily and brutally stifles the First Amendment rights of those with whom they disagree.
These groups all represent what is worst about our country. Violence, vandalism, hatred, and terror are wrong, no matter who is perpetrating those acts.
In any argument, it’s always the loudest people who get heard, but that doesn’t mean they speak for everyone. We must be careful not to over-generalize when it comes to these groups.
The Alt-Right and the neo-Nazis cannot be confused with every conservative Republican out there any more than the Alt-Left and the Antifa can be confused with every liberal Democrat. All of these labels are divisive and painting everyone with a broad brush is a lazy generalization. But this isn’t what the media is telling us. Instead, the mainstream media is pouring gasoline on this fire on a daily basis and they’re polarizing our country even more.
Most of us are decent human beings who have no argument with our fellow Americans. We have a lot more in common than this noisy minority and if we could respectfully find those points of agreement, we could, perhaps, find peace amongst our neighbors once again.
I only hope that we haven’t gone so far down this road that there’s no way back.
There is an effort underway to undermine the Republic by pitting various groups against one another by igniting emotional triggers. Those that attended the Charlottesville rally without a permit, some were paid, armed with bats and other objects to throw at other protestors were looking for a fight. A lot of misinformation about the cause of the Civil War exists. Removing Confederate statues is not positive no matter what side you tend to support.
i agree daisy.
but besides the erasing of history through destruction of monuments(isis) or removal of them(alt left) there is something more sinister going on and i don’t think it’s being discussed.
i think everyone has a visceral reaction to white supremacy groups. we assume they are full of hate. maybe they are, maybe just superiority. you know what? people are allowed their opinions. we can only hope that people who make the choice to hate others or feel superior to others don’t cross the line towards violence. as a libertarian thinker that is where i draw the line.
but what are we seeing in our country now? we see boatloads of “thought police” as you called them, calling out anyone who does not agree with them as some kind of moral degenerate. and you can’t help notice that they are full of hate….
so…..follow along here. we have a large portion of the population that is filled with hate who believe that they are superior to those that they deem inferior.
what makes them any different than the neo nazis and white supremacists they detest? well, really, not much.
except that at the moment, they have convinced themselves that violence against those with inferior beliefs is morally justified. we keep seeing this over and over.
one of the things that made nazis and white supremacist so ugly in the past was what they did. not just what they thought. most good people never want to see any of that take place again….but guess what? it is
mob mentality is what made much of humans’ horrible past possible. here we are again.
in the way that prayer and meditation work to send positive vibrations into the universe for good, so too, does naked hate, of all kinds, into the universe for evil.
when i see the faces of screaming social justice warriors beating people for their thoughts i see the same twisted faces of those red necks of alabama in the 60’s where i grew up, beating people protesting for equal rights.
it’s time to actually stand for the part of the first amendment where speech is respected even if it is vile. thoughts should be respected too. make an argument for your cause. do not hate and do not resort to violence.
there is a blues musician who has spent decades finding white racists and befriending them and changing their hearts one person at a time. to me, that is what the human spirit is best at.
open your hearts to love. please
Completely agreed. “Those who do not know their history, are doomed to repeat it.”
If we choose to stop learning , moving forward from our lessons of the past, we are sliding back, and as you stated , doomed to repeat our mistakes!
I so totally agree with your thought processes on this. It saddens me so much about the things happening these days – what is happening to our country? I used to be proud to be an American, but we, as a whole, are just so divided now, it’s like we have no moral compass, or probably more accurate, our LEADERS have no moral compass. I am very cocerned for our homeland. These are huge issues that I think our attention is being drawn away from, to keep us from focusing on the bigger picture. What shall we do on an everyday basis, as the normal citizen, to mitigate this new way of thinking?
The democrats want these Confederate Civil War monuments removed so they can erase the evil history they created.After all,they made slavery possible,they created the KKK,they created the Jim Crow era and laws,they said that the black man and woman were less than a person and their for could NOT own land,businesses or vote,they had president Lincoln ASSASSINATED 6 days after he freed the slaves by another democrat.In fact they STILL support slavery to this day with welfare in places like Detroit which used to be a bustling city with industries and businesses until they gave the go ahead to raise the corporate tax rate to 35% which then turned it into a CRAP HOLE in which the minorities CANNOT escape because they don’t have the funds to move out to find better jobs and housing.People,read the history of the democrats and what they have done to our country.You will then agree with Rush Limbaugh that if the democrats are going to dismantle Confederate Civil War history,they MUST dismantle and destroy their own party never to be re made again,because THEY ARE the party of racism,hate and discontent,division and oppression.
The democrats don’t like hearing the INCONVENIENT TRUTH that they created and STILL support to this day.
You might as well associate burning books to those who take the statues down
We are removing HISTORY! I think the people wanting removal of these statues want us to forget our history. Slave ownership was prevalent not only in America, but around the world at this time. Was it right? Of course not! Today, it is unspeakable that people would have slaves. But, it was “common” during that era. I believe most of the people demanding this are “paid” protesters (it’s been proven), and it’s the left’s way of bringing this to the forefront and causing division in our country. The Socialist agenda is to “divide and conquer.” Well, they are doing a good job of “dividing” our country. These statues have been around for how long? And now all of a sudden, they’re offensive and need to be removed? No – this is all about dividing our country and putting black against white, which is a tragedy.
Statues are not history. Books, movies, dvd’s, tv shows, and archived records are history. Statues are symbols. And, now, that it’s become an issue, the symbolism is huge. All of those Confederate generals who have statues were slaveholders. And where are the black heroes, like Frederick Douglas, Harriet Tubman, and Sojourner Truth who have few or no statues in the south, and elsewhere.? Also, seriously, there are not paid protesters. Really. It has not been proven. It could just have easily falsely been claimed that the alt-right are paid protesters.
It should be noted that the periods of the most building of statues was not just after the civil war, but during periods of increased oppression of Black people in the south. Like when Jim Crow and increased lynchings happened, and during the start of the civil rights movement.
You are joking I hope.
‘ Books, movies, dvd’s, tv shows, and archived records are history.’ Movies and TV shows???
‘All of those Confederate generals who have statues were slaveholders. ‘ absolute rubbish. You have no sources for such a statement. Fact, less than 10% of property owners in the Confederacy had slaves.
If Douglass (Note ‘ss’ not one s) was to have a statue it should have been built in the Union
‘… he became a national leader of the abolitionist movement in Massachusetts and New York’ not Atlanta or Mobile.
Tubman
‘and an armed scout and spy for the United States Army during the American Civil War’.
Why in heck would the Confederate states put up a statue to an enemy spy?
Truth
‘Truth was born into slavery in Swartekill, Ulster County, New York, but escaped with her infant daughter to freedom in 1826. ‘ born in the Union and escaped slavery FROM THE UNION!!
All things including words are symbols.
Your grasp of history is obviously from Movies (Tom and Jerry) and TV shows (Archie Bunker).
‘It should be noted that the periods of the most building of statues was not just after the civil war, but during periods of increased oppression of Black people in the south.
You have absolutely no evidence for this. Except that all statues are erected after the event and duh yes the Jim Crow laws were enacted after the event. WOW what a brilliant conclusion!
Jim Crow laws
‘ Enacted by white Democratic-dominated state legislatures in the late 19th century after the Reconstruction period,..’
‘De jure segregation existed mainly in the Southern states, while Northern segregation was generally de facto—patterns of housing segregation enforced by private covenants, bank lending practices, and job discrimination, including discriminatory labor union practices. “Jim Crow” was a pejorative expression meaning “Negro”.’
So the North was exactly the same but they used commercial pressure rather than laws.
What a stupid fraud you are.
Lynchings in the United States rose in number after the American Civil War in the late 1800s, following the emancipation of slaves; they declined after 1930 but were recorded into the 1960s.’
So no they were not common in the 1950s or the 1960s. they had died out before WW2. The Civil Rights movement only began in the mid 50 and went through until the late 60s
Please go and throw paint on something. You do not make any sense where people are trying to have an intelligent discourse.
right after posting this morning i ran across this article which i thought fit right in with your blog. especially in light of all that is going on. pay close attention to the last paragraph…..and specifically the last sentence…..
this article was written by Mark Frauenfelder and is posted under fair use
https://boingboing.net/2017/08/16/what-would-a-new-us-civil-war.html?fk_bb
In March, Foreign Policy asked a number of national security experts to estimate the likelihood of a second US civil war in the next 10-15 years. The average estimate was 35%. This was before Charlottesville. Robin Wright of The New Yorker spoke to, Keith Mines, one of the national-security experts that Foreign Policy polled to find out what a new civil war could look like.
Today, few civil wars involve pitched battles from trenches along neat geographic front lines. Many are low-intensity conflicts with episodic violence in constantly moving locales. Mines’s definition of a civil war is large-scale violence that includes a rejection of traditional political authority and requires the National Guard to deal with it. On Saturday, McAuliffe put the National Guard on alert and declared a state of emergency.
Based on his experience in civil wars on three continents, Mines cited five conditions that support his prediction: entrenched national polarization, with no obvious meeting place for resolution; increasingly divisive press coverage and information flows; weakened institutions, notably Congress and the judiciary; a sellout or abandonment of responsibility by political leadership; and the legitimization of violence as the “in” way to either conduct discourse or solve disputes.
We have all heard the saying, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” Every Authoritarian state started out with it’s for the greater good. To say that violence is a means to justify the ends is not acceptable. No matter how well intentioned the folks may be that are pulling down the statues, etc., if there is property damage, vandalism, punching and spitting, I cannot support their cause and have no respect. (I am an advocate of the NAP). I totally agree with your observations Daisy.
How ironic that leftist/democrats are trying to remove history, that was created by leftist,,, the south was predominately democrat, the democrats were the ones who wanted to keep slavery, yet these mental midgets see fit to demonize white conservatives for stuff that was done by their democrat bretheren,
Personally im over this trash, i want the bullets to start flying, i live in a state that keeps aliding farther and farther down this hole an i am trapped here because thats reality when you have no money to relocate, and regardless if i am conservative or moderate i get to live by rules being created that i am vehemently opposed to. NO SAY
We have no say because mob rule is what we have
Daisy,
I admire you very much and I hope that I haven’t offended you.
Thank you for allowing me to speak here.
I write this with respect for all and malice toward none. I hate no one.
My great, great Grandfather, William Henry Bunn never owned a slave. He was burned out of his farm in Warrensburg, Missouri in the late 1850’s during the Kansas/Missouri border wars. He then came to Paris, Texas (appears in the 1860 census)…when the war for Southern Independence broke out, he joined with the Jefferson, Texas volunteers. He was a Private, Chief Bugler and Sergeant in the Tenth Texas Field Battery, Capt Joseph H. Pratt’s Company Artillery, Texas Volunteers.
He fought in the battle of First Manassas (aka:Bull Run). On the first day, he was left on the field in the belief that he was dead, but found alive the next day. He somehow, months later after recovery of his wounds, made his way back to Texas and rejoined his volunteers.
Later, in 1864, as a light artillery sergeant, he fought in the battle of Little Blue River, Missouri, where he was shot in both legs and had two horses shot out from under him. He survived with no loss of limb.
A member of the battery later claimed that of the original seventy-two men who joined in Jefferson, Texas, only seventeen were present at the surrender in 1865. My great, great Grandfather was one of them.
My great, great Grandmother, Mary Jane Mintz was in the Atlanta, Georgia area living with her grandmother when Sherman’s army approached. She, her younger brother and sister and grandmother escaped by mule drawn wagon to Pensacola, Florida. My great, great grandparents, William Henry and Mary Jane met there in Pensacola and we’re married in 1868, moved back to Warrensburg, Missouri in 1872 where my great Grandmother was born.
My great, great Grandfather fought an invading army that by Lincoln’s unconstitutional decrees forced legally seceding groups of states to stay at the point of a bayonet and because of Lincoln’s war, 700,000 (or more) men, women and children were murdered, raped and starved.
The Confederate memorial statues and monuments we’re put in place to honor men and women like my great, great Grandparents. Most all of Texas’ Confederate monuments and state government figurines, face south, forever shunning the North and it’s aggression.
There’s many books and authors like Thomas DiLorenzo that tell the truth about the South and Lincoln’s war that is far different from what most learned in their state run government schools.
Good article to read here… https://snapoutofitamerica.wordpress.com/2014/01/20/the-terrible-truth-about-abraham-lincoln-and-the-confederate-war/
Please, I urge everyone to take the time and learn the real cause of the war and learn true history and to please leave our monuments, memorials, statues, park and street names alone.
I’m a member of the Sons Of Confederate Veterans and an unapologetic, unreconstructed Southern Patriot and a proud descendant of a Confederate soldier.
“I love the Union and the Constitution, but I would rather leave the Union with the Constitution than remain in the Union without it.”
Confederate President Jefferson Davis
DaveForTexas
Dave, you have absolutely never offended me. You are always very kind and add so much to the conversation. Thank you for your insight.
The Sheet and Hood of the KKK has been replaced with the Black Clothes and Bandana of the AntiFa – I see no real difference between them….
Dead on Daisy. Thanks for speaking up!!
Excellent article, Daisy! Very insightful comments here as well. Looked through some of my old history books to see what their comments were about slavery and the civil war. Here’s what was said by Agnes Sadlier in her book “Heroes of History” printed in 1891… (pp. 226) “This was the end of the war, and in May all the brave men of the North went to their homes, proud in the thought that slavery was no more a blot on their fair land, for though it had not been fought for that end, still the war brought to pass the freedom of the negroes.” It had a balanced review of Northern and Southern Generals on both sides as well. In another book “A History of our Country”, written by David Muzzey in 1936 (pp. 404-406), he says “At the beginning of the war Congress had resolved that the war was to be waged not to subjugate the South nor to free the slaves there, but solely to preserve the Union.” Very similar to Sadlier’s view, printed 45 years later. It makes you wonder how the revisionists will write it in the future…
I totally agree with you Daisy and the other posters here so far today.
History is being erased and I am certain you will find George Soros neck deep in the efforts of all the violent protesters out there including the one who ran that woman down in Charlottesville.
Such a sad day for a country who has held freedom so dear for so long.
Any empire has a day of reckoning at some point and I believe ours is fast approaching. We have survived longer than any other empire in history. I use the term empire loosely until recently. When this country began empire building and the globalists took over we headed down this particular road.
So many great quotes listed by other posters. So many in this country need to read them and think real hard about them. We are doomed to repeat history because it is being erased!
I read Orwell’s book 1984 several years ago never having heard of it previously (I am 52). What an eye opener at that time and now we are several years down the road and I just cannot believe how that book is like a script the world is following. Most obvious to me in America because I live here. What the heck is the matter with the people? Are they so blind that so many are willing to be lead down this path or is it just the few who sell their very souls for dollars to perpetrate violence on others?
I still believe that there are many out here who are trying to live their lives quietly and not get involved in this crap (I being one) but the ire of the “real” American people is not yet at its fullest. Perhaps that is what will dictate war on this soil although I think the globalists continue to manipulate things on their terms.
Thanks for your post Daisy and your bravery for posting what is a terrible truth.
Agree 100% Daisy, these statues/monuments have been there for over 100 years in some cases so why suddenly now are they a problem? It’s political correctness run amok and it’s time for some maturity here. Free speech is being eroded by the day; if you don’t agree with the current attitude then your opinion is invalid or worse, “hate speech”, which is the slippery slope to outright censorship. Glad I’m old, can’t imagine how bad it will be in years to come.
A lot of the problem is that to many people the monuments are more than just history. A lot of people in the south, in particular, had ancestors who fought for the confederacy, and so it is more personal to them. I grew up in the south, was born right after WWII. Was graduated from Robert E Lee High School in San Antonio, TX in 1965. It will probably end up being renamed. Back then you would hear folks saying, The south is gonna rise again. I might have just been a kid but was smart enough to know that it was, first, a horrible thing that we had the Civil War to start with, and secondly, at least the Union won and our nation was saved from being two smaller, weaker nations, which would have never achieved the greatest we did achieve when we were reunited by the victory of the North. I actually had ancestors who fought on both sides – one of my father’s ancestors led a cavalry unit in the Confederacy, and one of mother’s ancestors was a general in the Union Army. My father’s grandmother, I was told growing up, had made a stand against Sherman’s army as they burned down most farms and plantations in the south on their march to Atlanta, as a 10 or 11 year old girl, along with a couple elderly slaves. They stood at the entrance to their small family farm with shotguns, and the union soldiers both took pity, and, no doubt found the little girl and two elderly men thinking they could hold back the Union army amusing, and their property was one of the few left standing.
Anyhow, to make a long story shorter, you cannot erase history, you can only deny it. What has happened, has happened, that cannot be changed. If you try to erase it or revise it to fit your agenda, all you do is keep people from being aware of actual history. All history of all nations and peoples have its warts. And to different people within the whole, the warts are different. People need to worry less about being politically correct and not offending anyone and worry more about learning from our history so we do not repeat the horrors of our past. People need to think about and realize the wholesale slaughter of Americans by fellow Americans during our Civil War, sometimes even brothers fighting brothers. Do we really want to ignore than and repeat it? I would sure hope that some sane people regain control in this nation and tune down the hatred and violence before we do indeed find ourselves having another Civil War in which we are killing each other for reasons totally uncalled for.
I am old enough to remember when you watched the news or read the news paper to get the FACTS. You never knew whether the reporter or news person was democrat, republican, or in agreement or disagreement with what they were reporting. They just stated the facts. We no longer have news that reports facts…it’s all news talk shows now.
It’s very sad what America has turned in to.
This shouldn’t even be debated, the monuments stay! The ones out there that are all upset about this need to get over it or else find another country that they like better and quit trying to change what they don’t like about this one. These monuments have been here way before most of us were born and our history is what it is… These antifa groups seem to be just as violent as any other group out there!!!
Great article Daisy!! Keep up the good work.
The difference between trying to erase our “history”, and glorifying men who practiced sedition and treason against the United State of America, is like the difference between a history book or museum and these statues that need to be gone from tax supported sites.
The Holocaust museum is the proper place to mention and show the disgusting images of Nazis, but it would not be, and is not tolerated on the streets and public parks of Germany or this country either.
What’s the difference between Antifa rebels who destroy monuments in America (monuments to the fight for state’s rights) and ISIS rebels who destroy monuments in the middle-east? (Temple of Bel in Palmyra, Palace of Ashurnasirpal II in Nimrud, etc.)
Maybe the better question is: What are the similarities?
Some very bad things have happened in our history. We have learned from those; the learning has made what we are today. Let history be left alone for new generations to see what we fought to preserve. God bless USA the Land of the Free.
I wholeheartedly agree with you on this Daisy! We are destroying our country with these harebrained attempts to whitewash our history. People need to learn their history and they need to delve into what this is all about especially these so called “Antifa” (stands for “Anti-Fascist Action”) members and their backers!
These attempts to re-engage the “black vs. white” arguments that have long been settled by repealing and replacing discriminatory laws are only designed to incite and force the government (local, state, federal) into granting more concessions, more entitlements, more give away programs and for what? To make the problem go away? To assuage the guilt of the “white” population? We are a sick people to allow this to continue in my humble opinion!
Doesn’t everyone see that we/they are being played??
No, the monuments should not be torn down because that is rewriting a history that does not need to be rewritten. It is a history that we need to be reminded of. The Anti-fas and these alleged white supremacists (sorry, I don’t believe more than a coupla hundred exist in the entire U.S) are being hired or instigated by the same side. This nonsense never arose until Trump was elected by a majority of the people in the United States. He ran against the deep state that has overtaken our government and is trying to overtake our minds and morals and culture. The people supported Trump because they were fed up with the federal and State bureaucracies. This is the reaction we get when we put this sort of secret government in danger! Think cause and effect, not personal opinions of what should be done. This is a visceral reaction from the government leaders trying to draw out a nasty reaction from the population. 99.9% of the people of the US are good people. Thinking leaders would ask people to line the streets of a city if these alleged white supremacists were to march and laugh at them. Peacefully point your fingers and laugh at them. But the Democratic governor of Virginia and his Senatorial henchman allowed (urged) the antifa’s (another fake group of paid protestors) to show up and start a riot. This was an effort to draw out the black vote in Virginia to support a losing campaign. Nothing gets the voters out like a good riot. They were successful at playing everyone against the middle with the added benefit of making Trump look bad. It has worked and now they will try to pull down the statues across the south in an effort to get folks to come out and riot. This is the Deep State democrat/Republican party at work. It seeks the same end result as ISIS blowing up the Giant Buddhas in Afghanistan, the ancient monuments in the middle East, and Czarist monuments when the Bolsheviks took over in Russia.
This has to stop but do not let them play us…There must be another way.
This subject doesn’t directly address the current problems in Virginia but as you mentioned some
politically correct folks have made a determined effort to change history, even worldwide, by
destroying the historical landmarks.
This happened starting in 1948 in Palestine. As the new immigrants started coming in the
original Palestinian villages were ravaged and destroyed so they are gone from history except for
saved historical pictures and documents. Some say there were never any Palestinians and that
the land was vacant. I believe everyone knows the anguish and conflict that continues and
festers there because the truth has been and is being buried.
Some References:
http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/mapstellstory.html
http://palestineremembered.com/DistrictOfJaffaTownsPictures.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20071013011700/http://imeu.net/news/article006.shtml
Daisy I knew you would again have stellar comments about this latest “Rent-A-Protest” that happened in Charlottsville! Terribly sad that people have NOT learned about the First Amendment, as well as other Amendments…I am posting this Craigslist ad published 6 days before the event occurred!
All over the web many are saying so much about the loss of our History. Globaliztion is pernicious and pervasive in so many forms, that making most of us “crazy” hearing, seeing and reading of how we are being stripped of our minds in hearing these things. This removal of History will make us into the Robots that George Carlin spoke of, that can only follow orders. If History is removed then what will the Christians do, since they will not even fight off the presence of Muslims, when the Bible is banned? The Pyramids? Books? I am so sad for the young in our Country…
Thank you again for another fine post Daisy!
Apologies as I cannot seem to get the text of the ad placed here…Rattlebone
There is a difference between the remembrance of history and the reverence of it. The past comments on this topic have ranged from claiming misinformation about the Civil War to blaming Democrats to big quotes. I completely acknowledge that the Civil War was brutal, traumatic, and caused tremendous loss on both sides. Yes, the Union caused some atrocities across the South (EX: Sherman’s marches). Yes, Lincoln initial goal was to preserve the Union, not abolish slavery. Yes, our ancestors (including my own) fought for the South to defend their homes and way of life. Those are all facts. Yet this begs the question…Why are there no slave ships monuments, or public markers to remember the lynchings on the slave blocks, or for the public lynchings of African Americans even after Civil War? These are also facts to should have been remembered but were mostly erased in the South, which has been re-writing this history of racial oppression for years! This is nothing is new.
The overall historical records are clear…These Confederate statues of generals and soldiers were NOT just erected across the South to honor these men but as part of a movement that became known as cult of a lost cause. This movement had one goal and one goal ONLY….Through monuments and through other means (like through terrorist racist groups like the KKK or through Jim Crow laws), to re-write history and to hide the truth (sound familiar?), which is that the Confederacy was on the WRONG SIDE of humanity. Furthermore, they were meant to re-brand the history their respective cities and the ideals of the Confederacy to fit their purpose of racial oppression. It is self-evident that these men of the Confederacy did not fight for the United States of America, they fought against it. They may have been warriors, but in that cause, they were NOT patriots. These monuments are NOT just historical but also celebrate a fictional, sanitized Confederacy, ignoring the deaths, the enslavement, and terror of non-white citizens (predominately African Americans) that they are actually stood for. After the Civil War, these monuments were part of that terrorism, intended to be a great reminder to another non-white citizen who was STILL in charge within their respective cities in the South. The stories of those racially oppression prior to and after the Civil War have either been forgotten or purposely ignored with ONLY one story told the past 20th century.
Even for me, I must have passed these monuments or not question the logic of these names given to places without a second thought. So I’m not judging people here on their comments. We all take our own journey on race. I get it. I just hope that people here will listen to perspectives other than their own. Think about the diverse people that have left these cities of the South because of these exclusionary attitudes. From the perspective of an African American mother or father, trying to explain to their children why Robert E. Lee stands on top of their city. Can you look into the eyes of your African American son or daughter and explain that Robert E. Lee is there to encourage him or her? Do think that he or she feels inspired and hopeful by that story? Do these monuments help see his or her future with limitless potential? Have you ever thought that if his or her potential is limited, THEN others’ potential may also been limited as well? I don’t have to explain to you of what obstacle of what racist terrorism from in post-Civil War up to now caused for people of diversity to fight for their rights anyways. We all know the answer to these questions. When you look in the eyes of that child as this arresting truth is realized, then this is the moment when we know what we must do…When we know what is right. We cannot walk away from this truth, whether one wants to label it “politically-correct” or not.
Yeah, there is going to be back-lash. That is expected. This too will pass. But it is the right thing. This is not about taking away something from someone else or of blame or of retaliation. This is, however, about showing the WHOLE world that we, as the people of the United States of America, are able to acknowledge, to understand, to re-reconcile, and more importantly, to choose a better path for ourselves by making right what was wrong. Otherwise, we will continue to see these trends of racial tensions, alt-right rallies, and violence as we see today.
History is done. We cannot change it. The Civil War is over. The Confederacy lost. And we are better for it! Surely we are far removed from this period to acknowledge that the cause of the Confederacy was wrong. And in this 21st century, asking African Americans or anyone else to drive by property they own and to have these monuments of men that fought to destroy this country and deny their humanity and diversity seems perverse and absurd. Century old wounds are still present because they never healed right in the first place. It is not relevant nor does it represent the amazing diversity of what America is TODAY. We are better TOGETHER than apart. This website was intended to bring people TOGETHER to better prepare for the worst case scenarios, for surviving the worst TOGETHER. Regardless of what you think of about these monuments, ask yourself do these monuments ultimately aid us in achieving our goal of coming and surviving together as a whole? If not, then they MUST be removed. If cities decide for their removal, so be it. Point is, there are FAR worse things to argue and survive for such as Global Warming, nuclear bombs, future wars, etc.
history is done, no doubt.
are we better that the confederacy lost? how can you quantify this?
we are the only nation on earth that let slavery end through conflict. every other western country figured out ways to end it with out bloodshed. lincoln ended it by invasion, war and destruction.
as a result, many people across many states put up memorials for the dead and for those who fought.
why are their memories unimportant? why only care about only one class of people? did not many of their own die in the conflagration too?
i don’t really care for memorials myself but i understand them. and i agree that there should be more in honor of those who’s freedom was taken away by their own countryman and sold to other’s here. and that their lives were filled with hardship afterward.
why can’t both be honored? we have room for love and honor in all our hearts. surley taking from one to give to another is noble but unfair.
Your blindness to the complexities of the causes for the war is pitiable. The war was fomented by the usual suspects – the New York banksters. There were several acts of Congress and several insidious incursions upon the commerce and compensation of the Southern States which were designed to cripple them and rob them of sustainability, thereby subjugating them to the Northern Bankster cabal. The Southern States did all they could within the workings of Congress to sustain their economy and commerce, but were overpowered by the flow of bribery money from the banksters. It is this indignity and assault on liberty and livelihood which fomented the war known to historians of this day as the “Civil War.” Your own focus on race as the be-all, end-all raison d’etre of the War Between the States is an indication of the quality (or lack thereof) of your education.
Anyone can wear their heart on their sleeve and go about taking offense; that is quite easy to do. What is more challenging is to make an honest effort to experience life as if no one ever intended to cause offense. Such a viewpoint is very freeing, healing and satisfying, because it enables one to approach all humans with empathy and an open heart, while protecting one’s own heart from becoming embittered and hateful. I hope you will challenge your own children to try this out for a while; it can lead on to friendships, success and happiness. There’s a very old saying that offense taken is as bad as offense intended. Meditate on that for a while.
There has been so much shift to the Civil War instead of today’s issues.
“There has never been a just [war], never an honourable one–on the part of the instigator of the war. I can see a million years ahead, and this rule will never change in so many as half a dozen instances. The loud little handful–as usual–will shout for the war. The pulpit will–warily and cautiously–object–at first; the great, big, dull bulk of the nation will rub its sleepy eyes and try to make out why there should be a war, and will say, earnestly and indignantly, ‘It is unjust and dishonourable, and there is no necessity for it.’ Then the handful will shout louder. A few fair men on the other side will argue and reason against the war with speech and pen, and at first will have a hearing and be applauded; but it will not last long; those others will outshout them, and presently the anti-war audiences will thin out and lose popularity. Before long you will see this curious thing: the speakers stoned from the platform, and free speech strangled by hordes of furious men who in their secret hearts are still at one with those stoned speakers–as earlier–but do not dare say so. And now the whole nation–pulpit and all–will take up the war-cry, and shout itself hoarse, and mob any honest man who ventures to open his mouth; and presently such mouths will cease to open. Next the statesmen will invent cheap lies, putting the blame upon the nation that is attacked, and every man will be glad of those conscience-soothing falsities, and will diligently study them, and refuse to examine any refutations of them; and thus he will by and by convince himself the war is just, and will thank God for the better sleep he enjoys after this process of grotesque self-deception.”
― Mark Twain, The Mysterious Stranger and Other Stories
Gutele Schnaper, Mayer Amschel Rothschild’s wife died, before her death she would state,
“If my sons did not want wars, there would be none.”
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt wrote in November 1933 to Col. Edward House: “The real truth of the matter is, as you and I know, that a financial element in the larger centres has owned the government since the days of Andrew Jackson.” It may be recalled that Andrew Jackson, US President from 1829-1837, was so enraged by the tactics of bankers (Rothschilds) that he said: “You are a den of vipers. I intend to rout you out and by the Eternal God I will rout you out. If the people only understood the rank injustice of our money and banking system, there would be a revolution before morning.”
“The issue which has swept down the centuries
and which will have to be fought sooner or later
is the people versus the banks.”
Lord Acton
What it comes down to is : “where do you draw YOUR line and say ‘No more!'”
If there are no statues to honor slaves and opponents of the confederacy, then add them- but don’t take away history. The narrative of most who visit these statues has changed, as facts from the past have become known to the people of today and in the future. Most people are well aware of our history. Therefore, regardless of the Intent of those who erected the statues, they give us the opportunity to have conversations, and to learn from our past.
I disagree with attempts to remove history, regardless of how people feel about it.
I agree with the article Daisy. Others have said it, and I agree wholeheartedly. The antifa and alt-left with their violence are doing nothing different than the Nazis pre- and during WWII and the White Supremacists did in pre-civil rights era. They are no different and the violence perpetrated is no different. In my opinion, CNN needs to be brought up on charges of sedition and inciting riots. Those words used to mean something. Those charges used to mean something. But this is going to end badly if they don’t get reigned in soon.
Daisy,
I want to say so much-and then again I don’t know what to say. Thank you for this article. It puts into words some of my turmoil.
Ajamu Baraka is ignorant of a great deal of history. And he tweets to the world as an expert. But he’s not the only one.
Several commenters have mentioned their ancestors in the Civil War. I,too, have a genealogy hobby and have many ancestors on my and my husband’s side, that fought in this war. On both sides. But the funny thing, when you begin this research, and start searching online sites of the old newspapers–papers from the 1850/60s-it presents a different side from current history books. Newspapers in the South began to show articles about the heavy taxation of the flax,rice and cotton crops beginning in the 1850s. Slavery was not the main focus of issues. Was there slavery–of course, no denying that. (None of mine owned any slaves that I have found so far). But the causes these men fought and died for were not to be spit on and crushed as only being slave mongers and white supremacists. That is an ignorance of facts.
Any person of any color today can choose to have the attitude: Look at these statues—that is our HISTORY–look how far we have come.
As a closing point—just WHAT IF—-the hate mongers in Virginia had NO EARS to shout their crap to? Would they have gotten bored yelling to each other and gone home? We’ll never know.
What IF… no one in Charlottesville had been PAID to break laws, assault peaceful people, destroy artworks and deface public property?
What IF … the laws were applied to everyone, equally harshly or leniently as the circumstances suggest? Then George Soros, several members of the DNC, both Clintons, both Bushes, and many other billionaires and control-freak sociopaths would be doing 20-to-life for their treason, murder and crimes against the country. We have our dysfunctional judicial system to blame for the lack of actual lawful behavior in the USA today.
Thank you Daisy. It’s getting so politically correct these days that there are fewer and fewer sites like yours where people can read and respond to the truth. I spent the last 33 years of my working life (I’m retired now) in the black world (classified programs) as a defense contractor and can vouch for the great service you are providing to your readers.
Since history is about to come to an end, at some point, history won’t matter any more.
You NAILED it Daisy, and I said so when I shared your post. I am not from the South. I know there’s a lot of mixed feelings. But those monuments DOCUMENT the history of our country. And I find it rather interesting that it isn’t necessarily black ppl wanting them removed….neither here nor there….we are witnessing a definite attempt to ‘whitewash’ history and incite ‘the people’ overall. As I posted, what do the youth of today REALLY know about the Revolutionary War, Civil War, World Wars, Korea, Vietnam, and even the wars in the Middle East? When those of us who were taught legitimate history and recall the wars of the 20th and 21st centuries are gone, who will provide the real narrative?
Well presented ideas that mirrors a lot of published thinking for all the right reasons. We no longer know what is true, but we do know that we have been lied to, many times, comprehensibly, and witness the real results in our time – this is not an easy position to be in.
The groups from the left and right who are causing all the trouble are ALL Controlled Opposition Groups. They are financed by NGO’s and various State and Federal Agencies. They are using a subversive tactic called Pressure from Above,Pressure from Below. The groups on the street are pressure from below. The MSM and NGO’s and Government at various levels are pressure from Above.
Until the People wake up to the manipulation there isn’t a prayer of saving America. Most of you folks are feeling guilty for things you had nothing to do with.
To me there is a irony be it is from where i have read elsewhere – if you put your esteem in the hands of others then you are already their slave .On the question of slavery it is as old as mankind so for eg do we now destroy the collasium and so on.How many of these people are happy to buy items made overseas in sweat shops etc which to me is akin to slavery. Alas i dont believe this divide will end well.Regretfully history shows that with Revolution s the regime will turn on its useful idiots.
I’m shocked by Ajamu Baraka and the Alt-left, in my opinion, lacks tolerance and only wants to paint a one sided version of reality. Didn’t Washington and Jefferson and even Trump, positively impact us in any way? They were only bad because of slavery? Which cancels anything beneficial that they may have done? Slavery, existed way before America, in all countries, White, Black, Asian, Latin America. You lost a war, you were a slave. Ancient times were more barbaric than our modern times. Slavery served a purpose: Labor. And Ancient people held their swords and guns on them. No gun, no sword, meant you were not a free man. You were a slave. Just history. Time to stop crying bigotry and see that often times the things that we are accusing others of, we ourselves are doing.
Great Article!!! Keep up the good work….
Thank you!
The argument that “history is always written by the victors” is both compelling and largely true; at least, the victors’ arguments dominates the textbooks while counter-arguments become buried by time. This movement doesn’t attempt to add contrary arguments or add an alternative perspective to the historical narrative, it attempts to eradicate it altogether, and therein lies its true destructive force.
Finally, the suggestion that we can “learn” from history is a gross understatement. Human behavior is repetitive. We’re bound by genetics and experience. Understanding history is understanding ourselves.
OMG I just read this article and totally believed it to have been written June 2020. Then I see the comments dated August 2017. 3 years on and the “problem” is still the same one. IS there any antidote to the endless repetition of the follies and atrocities of history? I’m feeling intimidated into silence, as are my friends and my sons…….this is bad!
I know there is a small and very vocal and powerful in their entrenched victim groups voice here. But if there is nothing and nobody to stand in their way and challenge them, the quietened majority will be mobbed and lynched, if not literally, then metaphorically. Words of warning seem to only be heard by those who are already aware of the danger, not by those who cannot see where they are pushing others. We don’t get to choose the times through which our span of life is led……some see war, some see chaos ad forces beyond the individuals involved, acting like a tidal wave or tsunami, wreaking havoc, destruction and death.
July 2020. I am in the throes of losing someone I love dearly. But I cannot be quiet right this very moment about this topic; and in the emotional state such that I am in, I am speaking to hearts and minds that have lost the ability to discern evil from good, to discern other’s credible feelings over one’s selfish claim of “seeing nothing wrong.” The trending topic of “erasing” history and people up in arms about wanting to “keep” bad history in people’s faces, my thoughts are expressed here. History does not need displaying when such display is demeaning or has a foundation based on hate, self-service, “use” of another, and discrimination of any sort. It can be written about in a book, because history cannot be erased from memory and captured in words; but it can be erased from sticking it in people’s faces when it is on display, no matter the type, venue, or means. Erasing bad history from the “view” of the public is akin to an act of forgiveness. And what is it that our Father Creator says about forgiveness? When bad history is justified, it is the same as calling evil good, and when wanting to keep and keeping bad history displayed for public viewing wins over compassion, remember the cosmic Laws of the Universe: One reaps what one sews and that encompasses one’s thoughts and actions.
History, not to be proud of, and the deterioration which followed through the years:
1) https://www.justfactsdaily.com/thomas-jefferson-racism…/
2) Add this for history: https://slate.com/…/woodrow-wilson-racism-self-determinatio…
3) Then this followed in history: https://www.history.com/…/black-history/thirteenth-amendment
4) https://www.washingtonpost.com/…/fourth-july-is-black-ame…/…
There are not enough cool, level-headed people like you in our nation anymore!
I agree with much of what you wrote. In order to move forward, we need to be aware of our history.
Where I disagree with you is in your labeling of the members of groups that you disagree with, and automatically assuming that hatred is behind their actions. I don’t support any of the groups that you mentioned, but I also know that the motivations to join groups can be widely variable, and to assume hatred is not the way to understand the differences and possible similarities that you have.
We are not a homogenous society. Other people have, and are entitled to their own beliefs, regardless of what you think of them. It may help if you (impartially) educate yourself on the reasons that some of these groups came into existence, and understand that they are protected by the same constitution that protects you. The constitution is not there for the sake of the government. It is for protecting the rights of the citizens of this country FROM the government.