WhatFinger

How far are these people willing to go in their efforts to obliterate history?

Paging Orwell: Baltimore dismantles and removes four civil war statues in the dead of night

By Robert Laurie ——--August 16, 2017

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I'll be honest. I'm a little torn on the whole "Civil War statue" issue. Thanks to an elongated family tree, my great-grandfather fought for the Union in the Civil War and (all racial issues aside) there's part of me that doesn't completely understand the need to lionize people who would have killed him and seen the country torn asunder. That said, I also despise fascism, understand the "it's part of history" argument, and am appalled by the footage of angry mobs ripping these relics down. With all of that in mind, if we're going to remove the statues, I'd argue there's a right way and a wrong way to do it. Last night, in the dead of night, Baltimore did it the wrong way. It seems the City Council decided that, while everyone slept, it would go the Orwellian route and make all the unpleasant history disappear.
From CBS Baltimore:
Baltimore city crews took down confederate monuments across the city overnight. All four — the Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument on Mount Royal Avenue, the Confederate Women’s Monument on West University Parkway, the Roger B. Taney Monument on Mount Vernon Place and the Robert E. Lee and Thomas. J. “Stonewall” Jackson Monument in the Wyman Park Dell — have been removed. On Monday night, the Baltimore City Council passed a resolution calling for the immediate deconstruction of these monuments, days after a “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia that drew white nationalists and counter-protesters turned violent.
Congratulations, Baltimore citizens, you can now go about your day, protected from the horrors of witnessing a statue of someone who died over a hundred years ago. If you're wondering where the statues are going to end up, don't ask Baltimore's Mayor, Catherine Pugh. She has no idea. Some people want them melted down, but Pugh has suggested they be sent to one of Maryland's confederate cemeteries.
She says she doesn’t know where the statues are headed quite yet, although she said earlier this week that she would like to see them go to one of Maryland’s confederate cemeteries. “I mean I was up until 5 o’clock this morning to make sure they got off of those podiums… I wanted them out of the city and I would suspect that they’re out of the city. I’ll find out later on. I’ve been up all night and so right now I’m just trying to stand on my feet.”
If, and I stress "if," we're going to pull these monuments down, I actually think the Confederate cemetery idea is solid. However, here's a question: "If confederate displays are so grotesque, terrifying, and insulting, why are we permitting the continued existence of confederate cemeteries in the first place?" This gets to the heart of the matter. If their basic thesis is correct - that they should be protected from disagreeable historical imagery - shouldn't we demolish the cemeteries as well? How long will it be before they direct their rage at the dead, and start toppling headstones? If the mentality we've been witnessing is correct, wouldn't that be the only "moral" course? How far are these people willing to go in their efforts to obliterate history?

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Robert Laurie——

Robert Laurie’s column is distributed by HermanCain.com, which can be found at HermanCain.com

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