The statue had nothing to do with remembering an ugly history… it was about remembering an ugly history fondly, and continuing the sins of the past.

The same people that fought for the statue are fighting against the history being taught. They are the same people actively restricting the abilities of African Americans to vote. They are the same people undermining our democracy.

They are the GOP.

It doesn’t take a monument honoring the the traitors for us to remember the evil they fought for… we need only look around at the lingering scars that still disfigure our nation to this day… which is why the republicans, who defended the statue as valuable history, now attack the teaching of that history as anti-american. Every single right wing TV and radio program I have listened to the past few weeks has been harping non-stop about the evils of those teaching the history of racism in America…

so no… its not about history, its about conservatives covering up the scars with clown make-up so they can feel better about inflicting new wounds on those they consider inferior.

“Charlottesville’s statues of Lee and Jackson were erected in the early 1920s with large ceremonies that included Confederate veteran reunions, parades and balls. At one event during the 1921 unveiling of the Jackson statue, children formed a living Confederate flag on the lawn of a school down the road from Vinegar Hill, a prominent Black neighborhood. The Jackson statue was placed on land that had once been another prosperous Black neighborhood.”

Its the rash of bogus memorials erected by the KKK about a century ago in an effort to legitimize the Confederate Insurrection and the foul institutions of slavery and Jim Crow. That is the history that must be preserved, the effort to rewrite history itself. And the next time some southern sympathizer or Confederate apologist tries to tell you its all about “history” or “heritage” tell him its no better than memorials to the SS Generals and soldiers who participated in the NAZI attempt to rule the world. A memorial to Generals Lee, Jackson and Forrest is no more defensible than memorials to Generals Rommel, Keitel and Guderian. Whatever the personal qualities or virtues of these men, it must never be forgotten that they willingly contributed their talent to the preservation and promotion of a malignant obscenity.

I don’t care if your great-grandfather was born in Germany, I don’t want to be subjected to reverent memorials to Adolph Hitler and Josef Mengele.