GAZETTE: What about the slippery slope argument? That would be fine advice if it were true that this is really just about local authorities making democratic decisions about statues. The fate of Confederate monuments is far from sealed, but the political cage-match has overshadowed the point and obscured the discussion. Why shouldn’t we view them as we should, as a haunting and cautionary tale? There's no statues of Hitler in plain sight. Those in favor of keeping … Rather, Confederate monuments were intended “to celebrate … the re-subjugation of the formerly enslaved and their progeny into the economic peonage and racial caste system of Jim Crow.” They say we shouldn’t honor a bunch of racists who fought to preserve slavery, and that it’s long past time for these painful reminders of our past to come down—stow them away in a museum or smash them to pieces, just get them off the streets. ... have called for Confederate monuments to be removed from ... applied this argument… There are three main arguments for ... An example of this is from Colorado’s addition in 2002 of a plaque about the Sand Creek Massacre near its state Civil War monument. One columnist in Philly even argued for tearing down a statue of Frank Rizzo, who served as police commissioner and mayor in the late 1960s and ‘70s. Write the synthesis paper, arguing either for removing the Confederate monuments or keeping the Confederate monuments, supported by specific points and facts from the four sources you are using. A pastor in Chicago asked the mayor to remove the names of Washington and Andrew Jackson from city parks because they owned slaves. Many of America’s founders — George Washington, Thomas Jefferson — owned slaves. In some cases, any monument would do. The argument to remove the monuments is one of sensitivity: in 2017, should a black American drive by their state’s capitol building, walk into their nearest shop, and visit their favorite park only to see a Confederate flag or a Confederate monument, and be reminded of its dark history? Perhaps not all of them need be preserved, but giving into the iconoclasm of the Left, with temperatures running high, will mean we lose far more than we gain by hiding these physical reminders of our nation’s troubled past. Keep reading for all the pros and cons of removing Confederate statues. The statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee and his mount, Traveler, face the setting sun on Monument Ave. in Richmond, Va., Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2012. [6] Monument to Robert E. Lee, commander of the Confederate States Army. You can use the matrix format we learned about in last week’s assignment or some other outline format.3. Monuments to the failed Confederacy were mostly erected many decades after the US Civil War. Respecting your forefathers, you would have been taught to respect yourself. Before the turn of the century, Confederate graves had for the most part not been cared for in federal cemeteries, and erecting a Confederate monument was considered treasonous. That is part of why these memorials and statues are important. He is not interested in the history of the statues themselves, the people or events they depict, or “what political affiliation may have been assigned to them in the decades since they were erected.” Don’t be fooled by the therapeutic language about causing pain. Keep Confederate monuments, but put their horrific history on center stage While Trump is far from right, he is not totally wrong. A crowd gathers at the statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis after it was pulled down off of its pedestal on Monument Avenue in Richmond, VA., on June 10, 2020. Nearly a quarter of Southern white men in their twenties were killed or died from disease. Civil Rights Activist Argues To Keep Confederate Monuments Andrew Young, former mayor of Atlanta and African-American civil rights activist, says … Florida. But they were also an outpouring of grief and remembrance for the hundreds of thousands who had died in the war. Hence the statement issued Thursday by Seattle Mayor Ed Murray calling for the removal of all “symbols of hate, racism and violence that exist in our city.” Murray is at least consistent, as he includes not just Confederate symbols but also a well-known statue of Vladimir Lenin. Between the start of the Civil War in 1861 and the Supreme Court’s decision in Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896,17 only 101 Confederate monuments … Confederate monuments might be most appropriately stored and kept in museums that are responsible about contextualizing what they represent. Last month, similarly opposing protests rocked the city of Charlottesville and it is one of the cities to most recently facing controversy over Confederate monuments. ... We … The recent spread of iconoclasm was never just about Confederate monuments or even statues. For the Left, the Confederacy is just a small part of a much larger problem, which is the past. Confederate statues shouldn’t be vandalized, but they should go. Today I will be arguing that confederate monuments should stay up. Here’s where.. On Tuesday night, protesters in Richmond tore down the third Confederate statue in recent weeks. Indeed, the fact that these statues were erected in prominent public places is itself a powerful lesson in American history—a testament to our turbulent past that would be diminished if they were removed to a sanitized display in a museum. There’s a reason Christians in Rome didn’t topple all the pagan statues and buildings in the city, or raze the Colosseum. It’s part of the Left’s overarching critique of American constitutionalism, the goal of which is to overthrow that order. Does removing statues of Columbus or Confederate officials pave the way for action against monuments honoring … “The Left’s vandalism is intended mainly to get a rise out of the Right, in the hopes of getting some Republican to wrong-foot himself over a racial question,” he writes. A Moral Argument for Removing Confederate Monuments in Two Parts. See details. Tearing down Confederate statues, or any monuments from our history, will not change the past. But it will make for a poorer, less enlightened future. Most of them were built a half-century after the war, as the Civil War generation was beginning to die off. A writer at Vice News called for Mount Rushmore to be blown up. Everybody remembers the history. After the Civil War, there was little fanfare about Confederate heroes, and monument-building was minimal. Many of America’s founders — George Washington, Thomas Jefferson — owned slaves. You may click on “Your Choices” below to learn about and use cookie management tools to limit use of cookies when you visit NPR’s sites. That’s why Mao’s Cultural Revolution in China torched temples and dug up ancient graves, why the Soviets sacked Orthodox churches and confiscated church property, and why various governments of France went about de-Christianizing the country during the French Revolution. Part 1: But that’s an expensive proposition. Organize your paper by argument, not by source. Monuments to the failed Confederacy were mostly erected many decades after the US Civil War. There seem to be at least two core misunderstandings in the Confederate monument … The values these monuments stood for, he says, included a “glorification of the cause of the Civil War.” White women were instrumental in raising funds to build these Confederate monuments. Even if some conservatives sympathize with those who want to remove Confederate memorials—and plenty of prominent right-of-center writers clearly do—there’s no need to join them because the iconoclasm sweeping the country, says Williamson, “mainly consists of local authorities making democratic decisions about the disposition of public property,” and thus “there is a case for political quietism in this matter.”. It’s a mistake not because there was anything noble about the Confederacy or its raison d’être, which was slavery, but because there is something noble—and, for a free people, necessary—about preserving our history so we can understand who we are and how we should live. Even so, some conservatives are willing to let the things go. Sometimes, they should oblige us to grapple with our nation’s history and the vagaries of human nature. Confederate monuments on public land make black people feel unequal in the eyes of the state, that they are second-class citizens. Why We Should Keep The Confederate Monuments Right Where They Are Tearing down Confederate statues, or any monuments from our history, will … John is the Political Editor at The Federalist. Keep reading for all the pros and cons of removing Confederate statues. Edmund Burke had strong words for the French during their revolution, while they were doing their best to destroy a rich past and slaughter one another in the process: You had all these advantages in your ancient states; but you chose to act as if you had never been molded into civil society, and had everything to begin anew. That they were wrong about slavery does not excuse us today from the burden of trying to understand what motivated them to fight—and what motivated them and their families to undertake a flurry of monument-building decades later as the surviving veterans began to die off. In an op-ed published an op-ed in The Atlantic titled “Take the Confederate Names Off Our Army Bases,” General David Petraeus wrote, “As I have watched Confederate monuments being removed by state and local governments, and sometimes by the forceful will of the American people, the fact that 10 U.S. Army installations are named for Confederate officers has weighed on me.” (Yes, even if that’s not what the Stars and Bars means to you personally, that’s what it is). Arguments for why Confederate statues should not be removed include pointing out the dark sides of other celebrated American heroes, like Washington and Jefferson, as well as the politicization of the statues when there are more important problems. They served to venerate Confederate heroes like Robert E. Lee, thereby cementing the narrative of the Lost Cause and all its misty-eyed nostalgia about the South. The words "Black Lives Matter" spray painted on a monument to former Confederate President Jefferson Davis in Richmond, Va. June 25, 2015. Argument Tearing Down Statues Won’t Undo History From the Berlin Wall to Confederate monuments, destroying a historic marker means destroying a learning opportunity. ... My strongest argument against keeping these monuments in public would be that we should follow what Germany did after World War 2. But sure enough, later in the week the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC was vandalized with spray paint. They could clash with counter-protesters who plan to meet them there. NPR’s sites use cookies, similar tracking and storage technologies, and information about the device you use to access our sites (together, “cookies”) to enhance your viewing, listening and user experience, personalize content, personalize messages from NPR’s sponsors, provide social media features, and analyze NPR’s traffic. The words "Black Lives Matter" spray painted on a monument to former Confederate President Jefferson Davis in Richmond, Va. June 25, 2015. Those in favor of keeping the statues say they reflect history and are a part of the city. Why We Should Keep Confederate Statues Standing. Does removing statues of Columbus or Confederate officials pave the way for action against monuments … This iconoclastic impulse is a mistake, even after the harrowing events in Charlottesville last weekend. Arguments for why Confederate statues should not be removed include pointing out the dark sides of other celebrated American heroes, like Washington and Jefferson, as well as the politicization of the statues when there are more important problems. President Trump was mocked for suggesting that if we tear down statues of Lee then activists would demand the removal of George Washington or Thomas Jefferson next. Confederate monuments are falling, but hundreds still stand. The modern-day American Left isn’t as bad as all that, but its ideology about the past is more or less the same. Florida. ... My strongest argument against keeping these monuments in public would be that we should follow what Germany did after World War 2. Social justice activist Tami Sawyer, who founded Memphians for the Removal of Confederate Monuments, says the argument that the monuments need to … The statues must go because they remind us constantly of a past that needs only to be overcome and forgotten. The point of removing Confederate monuments is not just to to get rid of the statues themselves, but to develop a strong social consensus that recognizes the wrongness of the Confederacy's cause. And for as much as Lost Cause mythology adorns so many of these monuments, their purpose was also to convey to future generations why so many people kept fighting, for years and in the face of staggering casualties. Through our great good fortune, in our youth our hearts were touched with fire… we have seen with our own eyes, beyond and above the gold fields, the snowy heights of honor, and it is for us to bear the report to those who come after.”. There are several popular arguments for keeping … Though the rhetorical question “when does it stop?” commits the slippe… Steve … You can adjust your cookie choices in those tools at any time. Of course, the monument boom across the South during the first two decades of the twentieth century came at a time of terrible race relations, mass immigration, and the pernicious influence of the Lost Cause mythos, which poisoned the South. Kevin Williamson at NRO urges conservatives to do nothing. Today I will be arguing that confederate monuments should stay up. Utilizing Confederate monuments in my classes offered students a window into the history of the war, but more importantly, it introduced them to … [5] This essay introduces this type of argument. Speaking on Memorial Day in 1884, Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., a Union veteran who saw a great deal of action, talked about the importance of transmitting the emotional weight of the war from one generation to the next, and he specifically mentions the role of monuments: “I believe from the bottom of my heart that our memorial halls and statues and tablets, the tattered flags of our regiments gathered in the Statehouses, are worth more to our young men by way of chastening and inspiration than the monuments of another hundred years of peaceful life could be.”, For Holmes, it was also the duty of Civil War veterans themselves to convey the significance of the war to posterity. The people who want them taken down are confusing, supporting what something stands for and letting it stay due to its historical value. It's a … A monument to fallen Confederate soldiers in downtown Gainesville was brought down on August 14, and carried away by workers hired by … The Confederate-Monument Controversy Is a Democrat-vs-Democrat Question By Kevin D. Williamson. Last weekend, opposing protests rocked the city of Charlottesville, VA, one of the cities to most recently face controversy over Confederate monuments. So the monuments reflect more than one current of early twentieth-century America. It would even be fine if it were just about the moral preening of Democratic politicians and activists, seizing on an opportunity to shame and embarrass Southerners for gradually abandoning their party in favor of the GOP. Others, advocating for the monuments’ removal, call them an offensive reminder of … All this sounds crazy, but jumping from Confederate statues to Lincoln to Rizzo follows a certain logic. A monument to General Lee in a Confederate cemetery or as part of a battlefield monument ought not to be seen as an affront to anyone. A monument to fallen Confederate soldiers in downtown Gainesville was brought down on August 14, and carried away by workers hired by … If you click “Agree and Continue” below, you acknowledge that your cookie choices in those tools will be respected and that you otherwise agree to the use of cookies on NPR’s sites. For the ordinary soldiers who fought and died, devotion to the Confederate army did not arise primarily from a devotion to the institution of slavery (just as most Union soldiers were not fighting primarily to end slavery) but from a devotion to their home states and a sense of honor and duty to defend them from what they considered to be an invading army. Steve Helber / … Though many of the arguments defending Confederate monuments are weak, I’ll admit I don’t feel strongly about removing them. Is it any wonder that decades later, as families began to bury Confederate veterans in greater numbers, there would be a push to erect memorials to that generation? But as the veterans of the war began to die, there was a renewed push for reconciliation between North and South, and with it an outpouring of filial piety. He said, “the generation that carried on the war has been set apart by its experience. These symbols, Murray says, represent “historic injustices,” and “their existence causes pain among those who themselves or whose family members have been impacted by these atrocities.”. In essence, the constitutional argument against Confederate monuments is that they were erected as expressions of white supremacy, and that their continued existence is a form of state-supported racism. In the wake of Charlottesville, a chorus of media outlets, political activists, and random people on the Internet have called for the removal or destruction of Confederate statues in cities across the country. But the iconoclasm on display now is about more than anathematizing the Confederacy or scoring cheap political points against hapless Republicans. Al Sharpton said the Jefferson Memorial should be abandoned. 1. The Confederate-Monument Controversy Is a Democrat-vs-Democrat Question By Kevin D. Williamson. Iconoclasm of the kind we’ve seen this week is native to the Left, because the entire point is to liberate society from the strictures of tradition and history in order to secure a glorious new future. Copyright © 2021 The Federalist, a wholly independent division of FDRLST Media, All Rights Reserved. For all the tough talk this week about the problems with these historical monuments, there hasn’t been nearly enough discussion of their history. 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