I don’t feel strongly either way, but for the progressives who spend so much of their time worrying about memorials and names on schools, how about rolling your sleeves up and addressing real systemic racism - Exhibit A would be the DC Public School system.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If the confederate monuments had gone up at the time of the war maybe I'd have some sympathy for them but most were put up post 1900 by apologist groups trying to rewrite history with some Lost Cause propaganda. And for PP above worried about these monuments to the losers of the Civil War, don't worry -- Youngkin & others are keeping these monuments, they just will no longer get prime real estate with our actual war heroes. Not sorry that insurrectionists are not being honored in Arlington anymore.

Except that's not what happened. In 1900 the South was slowly recovering from the effects of war, and people were still mourning and remembering their war dead. But with the advent of Spanish-American War, there was a greater need for the government to foster unity. Before this, families of confederate soldiers weren't allowed entry into Arlington to place flowers on the graves of their loved ones. There was a push to remove all the buried confederates to a Southern location, but the Confederate section and memorial were proposed as a compromise. This monument was integral to the reconciliation process, and in recognizing the humanity and losses faced by the "other" side.

The statue was dedicated in 1914, 49 years after the end of the Civil War, and 16 years after the Spanish-American War.

You can go admire it somewhere else.

Anonymous wrote:If the confederate monuments had gone up at the time of the war maybe I'd have some sympathy for them but most were put up post 1900 by apologist groups trying to rewrite history with some Lost Cause propaganda. And for PP above worried about these monuments to the losers of the Civil War, don't worry -- Youngkin & others are keeping these monuments, they just will no longer get prime real estate with our actual war heroes. Not sorry that insurrectionists are not being honored in Arlington anymore.

Except that's not what happened. In 1900 the South was slowly recovering from the effects of war, and people were still mourning and remembering their war dead. But with the advent of Spanish-American War, there was a greater need for the government to foster unity. Before this, families of confederate soldiers weren't allowed entry into Arlington to place flowers on the graves of their loved ones. There was a push to remove all the buried confederates to a Southern location, but the Confederate section and memorial were proposed as a compromise. This monument was integral to the reconciliation process, and in recognizing the humanity and losses faced by the "other" side.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's good to get rid of a monument about the two sides coming back together and living in peace?

I don't think the south wanted to come together to live in peace. They gave up because they were losing badly.

Ironic that there should be a monument for them in the "United" States of America, a country they no longer wanted to be part of.

The South was not a monolith. And they did come back together.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is good.

The statue, unveiled in 1914, features a bronze woman, crowned with olive leaves, standing on a 32-foot pedestal, and was designed to represent the American South. According to Arlington, the woman holds a laurel wreath, a plow stock and a pruning hook, with a Biblical inscription at her feet that says: “They have beat their swords into plough-shares and their spears into pruning hooks.”

https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/confederate-memorial-removed-coming-days-arlington-national-cemetery-105718054

Is it really, though. Is the answer to just abolish anything that brings up that period in our history? You can’t simply remove and destroy. Well, I guess you can as evidenced here but it’s not the way. Learning from history, but still accepting this was a period in our county’s history, makes more sense. It’s like those people running around trying to shut down freedom of speech. Isn’t the the answer to have better speech- than to shut the other side down?

We don't have any monuments commemorating British rule, yet everyone seems to learn that history just fine. This idea that monuments are essential to history is silly.

Anonymous wrote:It's good to get rid of a monument about the two sides coming back together and living in peace?

I don't think the south wanted to come together to live in peace. They gave up because they were losing badly.

Ironic that there should be a monument for them in the "United" States of America, a country they no longer wanted to be part of.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is good.

The statue, unveiled in 1914, features a bronze woman, crowned with olive leaves, standing on a 32-foot pedestal, and was designed to represent the American South. According to Arlington, the woman holds a laurel wreath, a plow stock and a pruning hook, with a Biblical inscription at her feet that says: “They have beat their swords into plough-shares and their spears into pruning hooks.”

https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/confederate-memorial-removed-coming-days-arlington-national-cemetery-105718054

Is it really, though. Is the answer to just abolish anything that brings up that period in our history? You can’t simply remove and destroy. Well, I guess you can as evidenced here but it’s not the way. Learning from history, but still accepting this was a period in our county’s history, makes more sense. It’s like those people running around trying to shut down freedom of speech. Isn’t the the answer to have better speech- than to shut the other side down?

We aren't forgetting about the civil war - we are removing monuments to the traitors/racists.

This is the way.

Anonymous wrote:It's good to get rid of a monument about the two sides coming back together and living in peace?

This was the original "both sides" mistake. We never should have allowed the south to "come back".

Soviet

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is good.

The statue, unveiled in 1914, features a bronze woman, crowned with olive leaves, standing on a 32-foot pedestal, and was designed to represent the American South. According to Arlington, the woman holds a laurel wreath, a plow stock and a pruning hook, with a Biblical inscription at her feet that says: “They have beat their swords into plough-shares and their spears into pruning hooks.”

https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/confederate-memorial-removed-coming-days-arlington-national-cemetery-105718054

Is it really, though. Is the answer to just abolish anything that brings up that period in our history? You can’t simply remove and destroy. Well, I guess you can as evidenced here but it’s not the way. Learning from history, but still accepting this was a period in our county’s history, makes more sense. It’s like those people running around trying to shut down freedom of speech. Isn’t the the answer to have better speech- than to shut the other side down?

I think I link to this every time this comes up, but the AHA statement on Confederate Monuments is spot on. Removing this doesn't "abolish" history.

"To remove a monument, or to change the name of a school or street, is not to erase history, but rather to alter or call attention to a previous interpretation of history. A monument is not history itself; a monument commemorates an aspect of history, representing a moment in the past when a public or private decision defined who would be honored in a community’s public spaces."

https://www.historians.org/news-and-advocacy/aha-advocacy/aha-statement-on-confederate-monuments

What history we honor with monuments is a different question than what history we remember as events. A monument is a statement about what we as a society honor. It's normal that what we honor will change and with it monuments will change.

If the confederate monuments had gone up at the time of the war maybe I'd have some sympathy for them but most were put up post 1900 by apologist groups trying to rewrite history with some Lost Cause propaganda. And for PP above worried about these monuments to the losers of the Civil War, don't worry -- Youngkin & others are keeping these monuments, they just will no longer get prime real estate with our actual war heroes. Not sorry that insurrectionists are not being honored in Arlington anymore.

Anonymous wrote:This is good.

The statue, unveiled in 1914, features a bronze woman, crowned with olive leaves, standing on a 32-foot pedestal, and was designed to represent the American South. According to Arlington, the woman holds a laurel wreath, a plow stock and a pruning hook, with a Biblical inscription at her feet that says: “They have beat their swords into plough-shares and their spears into pruning hooks.”

https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/confederate-memorial-removed-coming-days-arlington-national-cemetery-105718054

Is it really, though. Is the answer to just abolish anything that brings up that period in our history? You can’t simply remove and destroy. Well, I guess you can as evidenced here but it’s not the way. Learning from history, but still accepting this was a period in our county’s history, makes more sense. It’s like those people running around trying to shut down freedom of speech. Isn’t the the answer to have better speech- than to shut the other side down?

Removing a confederate statue from land donated by a confederate general so all soldiers would have a common final resting place.

What has America become?

It's good to get rid of a monument about the two sides coming back together and living in peace?

This is good.

The statue, unveiled in 1914, features a bronze woman, crowned with olive leaves, standing on a 32-foot pedestal, and was designed to represent the American South. According to Arlington, the woman holds a laurel wreath, a plow stock and a pruning hook, with a Biblical inscription at her feet that says: “They have beat their swords into plough-shares and their spears into pruning hooks.”

https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/confederate-memorial-removed-coming-days-arlington-national-cemetery-105718054