Removing Statues

I think the statues and monuments to Confederate generals and officials displayed in public areas around the south should be removed from places of honor on public land and put somewhere else. As well as I can tell most of them were erected during the Jim Crow years as objects of pro-Confederate defiance and symbols of the false rebel myth of the “glorious cause”. The politicians and societies who put them up were people who worked vigorously (and often successfully) to come as near they could  to erasing the results of reconstruction and  keeping black citizens in the former Confederacy in positions of servile inferiority. Besides, the men depicted in the statues committed treason against the United States.

I understand that Lee and some of the others were skilled military leaders and men of high personal character. I believe that should be recognized, but I also believe it is irrelevant in this context. As Grant wrote, the soldiers of the Confederacy served one of the worst causes for which a people ever fought, and one for which there was the least excuse. I  would make an exception for the monuments at battlefields such as Shiloh and Gettysburg. Those do seem to honor the courage of the rebel soldiers rather than celebrate their despicable cause.

None of this means that the vandalism of Black Lives Matter, Antifa, and their hangers on should be excused or tolerated. The decisions on the statues should be made by the people and officials in the cities where the statues are.  It is interesting to note  that the vandals are  also going after statues and monuments honoring Union officers and officials, including even Lincoln. That is more evidence that these people’s interests and purpose are promoting general anti-Americanism with the talk about slavery as only a cover or excuse.