That is just wrong (except for what you claim about the people you know).
Essentially everyone I know believes the statue removals are idiotic, that killing your own history lacks gumption, and those things are part of our history. There is no worshipping them as heroes, they are simply historical markers. And most are angry about it, yet not motivated to stop it.
I just saw The Best of Enemies, followed by a panel discussion which included one of the participants (Bill
Riddick, the leader of the charrette), the author of the book, and the director-writer of the film. I highly recommend seeing it, it will have its commercial opening in a few weeks. The events of the film happened in 1971. White supremacy didn't just fade away, it still exists whether you want to acknowledge it or not, there certainly is "worshipping" those Confederates as heroes and true Sons of the Revolution, and that is what those statues commemorate. That is what is being commemorated. No doubt you don't know anyone who is like that, but there are plenty of them around.
If you believe that "killing your own history lacks gumption", then I suppose you wouldn't object to placing a different statue next to the ones that were erected during Jim Crow that represent opposing points of view, along with markers that clearly explain the differences between them. That is what is being proposed in the Triangle area right now, given that the Republican legislature passed a law a couple of years saying that people could not remove statues on public property.
And, speaking about history, it is a fact that Trump refused to condemn David Duke and white supremacy. He said he didn't know who David Duke was, despite the fact that it is on the public record that he and Duke had previously met and he had spoken about him years before. It isn't an accident that white supremacists support him. |
