American history is being revised at the behest of Black Lives Matter and white uber-liberals
Heinrich Himmler, the power behind Adolf Hitler, was the architect of the Holocaust and his SS troops carried out the murder of six million Jews. The way statues and other memorials of Robert E. Lee and other Confederate heroes are being treated now would have us believe they were the Nazis of the 1860s.
It is true that Lee was a slave holder who believed that “negroes” were inferior to whites. Shame on him for that. But Lee was also a Confederate war hero who served the South, his homeland, with distinction and honor. Prior to the Civil War, Lee served the United States likewise. For a time, Lee served as second-in-command of the 2nd Cavalry Regiment in Texas.
Lee’s outstanding career aside, he and other Confederate heroes have been made pariahs by Black Lives Matter and uber-liberal college-type whites who are demanding that all vestiges of the Confederacy be removed from public sight. According to these historical revisionists, all statues and other memorials honoring Civil War heroes are offensive to blacks and a painful reminder of white supremacy.
Confederate statues are being removed and the names of parks and buildings are being changed throughout the South. In New York, busts of Lee and Stonewall Jackson have been removed from the City University of New York’s Hall of Fame for Great Americans because, according to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, “New York stands against racism. There are many great Americans, many of them New Yorkers worthy of a spot in this great hall. These two Confederates are not among them.”
Here in Texas, statues of Lee have been removed in Austin and Dallas. In Houston, the school district changed the names of seven schools named after Confederate notables that 90 percent of whites and 99 percent of blacks probably had no idea of who they were.
Dallas is the latest city to erase part of our history. On Thursday the city removed a 14-foot-tall, 6-ton statue depicting Lee on horseback flanked by an anonymous Confederate soldier from Lee Park and dumped it in an abandoned naval air station on the outskirts of the city. Shame, shame on Dallas for caving in to Black Lives Matter!
In Houston rabble rousers have demanded the removal of a Confederate statue in the city’s Sam Houston Park. The Spirit of the Confederacy statue was dedicated there in 1908 by the Daughters of the Confederacy. In Huntsville they’ve demanded the removal of Sam Houston’s statue because he was a slave holder.
George Hermann, Houston’s great philanthropist, was a Confederate war hero. Will the uber-liberals demand that Hermann’s statue be removed and that Hermann P ark and Hermann Hospital, the hospital he funded, be renamed?
The Civil War was part of our history. The Confederacy was part of our history. While the South seceded from the Union in order to uphold slavery, the Confederate soldiers fought for what was then their country. And they were not Heinrich Himmler’s SS troops. Unlike those SS troops, the Southern boys who went to war did not commit atrocities.
Texas was part of the Confederacy, so it would be natural for the state to have a statue of Lee and other Confederate heroes. I cannot envision that Confederate statues and other memorials would be a painful reminder of white supremacy to the average African-American. The demands remove all reminders of the Confederacy has been driven more by white-guilt liberals than by blacks.
While Dallas has acted shamefully, Houston does not have to cave in to Black Lives Matter. History matters too! Mayor Sylvester Turner should let the Spirit of the Confederacy statue remain in Sam Houston Park.
Lincoln didn’t think blacks could be properly integrated into American society. They should take down all of his statues and memorials.
I agree with 99{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} of what people here say about taxes and the general liberal mismanagement of Houston. But, I thought the bathroom nonsense was stupid and the statues need to come down. The civil war was a huge mistake and plus the statues were put up in the 1950’s (or earlier in Houston’s case) to intimidate black people. That’s 100{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} true. Conservatives need to win over minority groups and millenials to prevent liberal fiscal mismanagement. It can be done, but not when we focus on bathrooms and hero worshipping Robert Lee.
Sam Houston stays… because, duh. Texas has so much history besides the 4 years we foolishly joined the confederacy The fact that so many statues of confederate leaders were put up when black ppl were getting more rights makes It pretty clear what this was all about. Just take them down and focus on getting our garbage city gov working right.
Can’t say it better than that, Millennial. But the Harris County Republican Party (of which I am a member) has been misguidedly focused on purification for at least 4 years now. I know I don’t pass the test of the would-be leaders. Based on the very enlightened and accurate comment above, you probably wouldn’t either. There’s a race coming up for HCRP chair. Lots of mud will get slung. There is one pragmatist (Paul Simpson) against a sea of ideologues (Jared Woodfill and the Acolytes)(but actually that makes him seem like a leader, something he’s never been. So more accurately, The Acolytes and Stooge).
Point being, race for the Party chair matters. We’ll either have a fighting chance with a sensible person or go down like a led balloon with somebody propped up the by the slates.
Emmett,
You do realize Paul Simpson’s pro-illegal immigration and pro-choice stance led the party to it’s worst defeat in history? This is not in dispute.
I guess the argument depends on whether one is white or black? He was regarded as one of the worse slave holders and fought to keep slavery.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/06/the-myth-of-the-kindly-general-lee/529038/
But I personally don’t care if all statutes are removed, let them read books.
The worst slave holder in the US is hands down the fed, its plantation is massive. They have created most of the issues that plague us today. They championed, welfare, desegregation and busing which did nothing but destroy entire communities (Detroit, St. Louis, Chicago, etc.) and force people together that otherwise wouldn’t live in the same areas. It was just another step in ending freedom for all….The statue removal is a ruse to create more hate and division. The worst part is that this was all intentional and hasnt changed.
Dennis Prager made the most of his point that those on the left don’t fight real evil, they fight fake evil that they invent. Take for example communism he says. The left embraces it after we fought wars to eliminate it. They accuse those that decry muslim terrorism as islamophobes. If you don’t embrace same sex marriage you’re a homophobe.
Antifa? The progressive left is all about controlling speech, media, entertainment and will go to many lengths to silence those that disagree with them. See Mark Zuckerberg for example. But isn’t that what fascists do? Why yes it is. And who wants to do all the silencing? The progressive left. Projection looks good on you lefties.
They claim having an abortion is a decision between a woman and her doctor but want tax payers to pay for them on demand. But get the government out of general health care? no way! You have no right to that privacy. Pay for that maternity coverage gramps!
They preach endlessly about the raging effects of gorebull worming and worship their celebrity mouthpieces that burn vast amounts of carbon running to the next international gold plated party to denigrate the rest of the world for not believing them. But if their science is so settled, why do they still have to lie about it? Why do they denigrate people’s doubts about the benefits of being taxed for something that can’t be quantified in the here and now by relying on stats that can’t be observed for decades?
It should hurt to be so deliriously stupid to fight statues that don’t fight back though.
And note the one consistency in all of their protests. Money. Every fight they make is for the same thing. Money. Where does it come from? The people. Gorebull worming? carbon tax. BLM? reparations tax. Free health care? health insurance tax. You what is the biggest driver of the push for same sex marriage? those sweet, sweet bennies that will come. Promising those bennies creates a coalition. That wants money.
The real shame is seeing their is no leadership on the right to push back against all this mess.
These points dont change that this focus on protecting confederate statues and bathrooms is a big turn off to people who want clean government and limited, but yet very effective on issues like roads and flooding. The dems have run houston for years and it is falling apart at the seams. I don’t care about Robert E Lee. I don’t like the statues. I care about our city getting on track. Emmet is right about Woodfill. I want someone like bill king to send the con artist Turner back to the private sector.
Barely notwithstanding, you are part of the most worthless generation in recent history. Millennial s are recognized for their selfishness and you obviously do not give a damn about history.
If I thought the Confederate statues and other memorials were really hurtful to African-Americans, I would not object to their removal. But that’s a red herring dropped on us by a relatively few black and white rabble rousers.
Texas was part of the Confederacy. Stop trying to erase history. Live with it!
I am a voracious consumer of history books and films, or rather was prior to my baby ending all of my free time. I really enjoy history.
I should have noted that I agree with your main point that Robert E Lee is not morally comparable to generals who worked for Hitler. This is true. Lee defended an evil that had been accepted for several centuries and was a soldier, not a policy maker in a time where that was a big deal. 1940’s Nazis were doing something terrible that they knew was terrible and had not been done before. That being said, Lee was educated about opposition to slavery and owned a bible with the story of the Hebrews in Egypt. He chose to fight for the South to defend slavery. He was a brilliant general who could have ended the war in a month had he supported Lincoln. Also, he could have won the war had he simply waited for northern voters to grow tired of fighting. Instead, he invaded the north. Lee is responsible for hundreds of thousands of people dying and dying in terrible ways in horrible conditions. He doesn’t deserve statues. Many objectively great Texans don’t have any statues or very few. Why does Lee have so many and Sam Houston has one? It’s because erecting statues of Lee was a way to intimidate blacks.
Next, as I said, I enjoy HISTORY. The statues are, of course, history. BUT, they are a history of 1900’s propaganda. Lost cause glorification is an example of historical propaganda like statues of Lenin and Saddam Hussein or (insert dictator here). It’s just propaganda – that’s why many were cheaply made and sent to every small town that could afford it.
I think you would be very, very hard pressed to find a black person who isn’t put off by the statues. I don’t think it is only paid rabble rousers who don’t like reminders of white opposition to civil rights. It is also our history that Obama was president for 8 years. Should every small town have Obama statues? That would bother me. I bet it would bother you!
I get that lots of people like the confederate statues. I don’t think all are racist, BUT let’s remember how powerful propaganda is. Lost cause propaganda was pervasive in the South for many years. The statues are very, very effective propaganda designed to cause powerful emotional responses.
Barely Millennial: “I think you would be very, very hard pressed to find a black person who isn’t put off by the statues.”
Possibly. But prior to the current media fueled kerfuffle, You’d have been hard pressed to find a black (or white) person who gave a rats a$$ one way or another.
I’m not sure at all that all that many people really “like” those statues. Frankly, handled a different way I don’t think there would a lot of objection to taking them down. But generally people resent being told what they “have” to do. And, the more that you keep telling me that I’m racist and evil because I’m not agreeing to blow up every Confederate statue in existence, the more I’m gonna resist.
There’s also the problem of when to stop. . . Some people are calling for the removal of the Jefferson Memorial. The Lincoln memorial was defaced the other day. Numerous leftists have called for the repudiation of the Declaration of Independence because it was written by a “slave owner”. Just how far are you willing to go to placate the demands of people who refuse to be satisfied?
Last comment – I just want fiscal sanity for tax payers and food, clean government. Please folks, let’s stop messing this up with bathrooms and statues!!!
Good, not food.
um…er Millennial maybe you just got here but there was a vote put forth to allow the citizens to weigh in on the bathroom bill.during Ma Parker’s error. She tried to squelch the 1st amendment in the run-up to that vote that she lost 60-40 in the gayest town in Texas.
No way that vaunted pillar of political strength Joe Straus; D-San Antonio would force his caucus to show their position on such a ‘minor’ issue. And yet he will demand removing plaques that dovetail nicely with what other SJWs are clamoring for. Odd he would fall in line with the rabid left on both issues./