Though dozens of congressional Republicans protested the move, the Army says it will begin work in coming days
The Lost Cause movement, which recast rebel traitors as morally righteous warriors defending states’ rights and spread the false belief that slavery was benevolent, is evident in the memorial’s bronze panels. A weeping Black woman, described by cemetery historians as a stereotypical “mammy,” clutches the baby of a White officer, and a camp servant dutifully follows his enslaver toward battle.
Fine with me. Republican losers can fuck off.
Yep. We need more headlines that end with “despite GOP opposition”.
If you’re upset that people don’t want to memorialize the south that was pro slavery and lost, you should re-examine your own values. And to all those Republican dickheads that say things like “the slave owners were democrats”, which party is upset about removing all the confederate statues and puts confederate flags on their pickups and houses again?
This. Their attempts to rewrite history and ignore that democrats that were racists were conservatives fail right off the blocks when they cry and cope over monuments to racists being removed.
They are Americans, even if they were on the wrong side of history. It is something to remember and think about it. I would not put anything new, but I would prefer old historical memorial on cemetery to stay.
That’s a good point. One nice thing about visiting Germany are all the statues of hitler they’ve kept. Real important to remember history with statues, both sides.
Edit: p.s. most confederate statues were erected for political reasons with money raised by the daughters of the confederacy. If you think their only motive was to celebrate brave soldiers, both sides, you missed a few wiki articles.
For those wondering, outside of the museums, this is (some of) how WWII is memorialised in Berlin:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neue_Wache
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_with_her_Dead_Son
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorial_to_the_Murdered_Jews_of_Europe
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaiser_Wilhelm_Memorial_Church#Spire_and_memorial_hall
I will hand it to the Germans: They said, “this is our shame to bear and we will make sure our great-grandchildren know this is our shame and never forget it” and they did a pretty great job.
They were, quite literally, not Americans.
They were Confederates.
Robert E. Lee opposed monuments like this for these exact reasons. They were put up by post-war pro-slavery efforts to romanticize and justify the South. And looks like it worked on you.
They were not Americans. They seceded from the United States of America and did it so they could keep up the institution of slavery. And they died traitors. Fuck them and this memorial that was put up in 1914, long after anyone involved would have died of old age.
The key issue being fought over with the Civil War was states rights. Now, the major part of the federal laws that the states wanted their rights to count for was for slavery and how it they wanted to take their slaves into the western territories. The largest northern opposition to slavery in the western territories was the newly formed Republican Party. And the election of the most famous of Republicans, Abraham Lincoln, basically sealed the deal. See Lincoln was made president without a single southern electoral vote. And so the southern states felt like they had zero representation in the US and their only option was secession. That choice to secede lead to war and here we are now.
But to say they weren’t Americans is unjust. A lot of those living in the southern states didn’t agree or even own slaves. But those same men were conscripted into the fight regardless. In 1862 the first conscription included all able bodied men from ages 18-35. And then the second a few months later changed it to 18-45. And then in 1864 it changed a third time to 18-50. And conscription in the Confederacy was known as “the most unpopular act of the Confederate government”. There were whole counties in southern states being run by draft-dodgers.
The only ones that never had to get drafted and fight were the rich, the politicians, or the plantation owners. See the conscription laws enacted the Twenty Negro Law which meant that for every 20 African American slaves you owned one white man was exempt from the draft. And even those that didn’t own “enough” slaves but had money could buy in a substitute in their place. And considering out of the 15 slaves states only about 3% of the population actually owned slaves at all in 1860 you can see why there ended up being a lot of draft dodgers. So yet again the rich enlisted the poor to kill themselves in a fight they likely had no part of at all. A lot of those died just because they happened to be born or live in a southern state.
Let’s get one thing straight, I’m not advocating for a confederate memorial or keeping the current stuff either. But we shouldn’t ever forget about what happened. And a graveyard commissioned because of the war, full of men that died as a result of that war should, at the very least, respect the dead buried there. Not everyone buried there had a choice, and some of them happen to be confederate soldiers as well. Being that Arlington was once the home of Robert E Lee and was ruled to have been unlawfully seized by the US during the war. Hell they even buried 30 Union soldiers surrounding Mrs Lee’s rose garden to dissuade Robert E Lee from returning to reclaim his home.
Not American just because they fought in a war they were likely forced into fighting. Think of all the people you’d condemn to with the same statement if the war happened today. Not everyone can afford to run away. A lot of those not American’s died in a fight they never wanted to be a part of. Just try and remember them, they deserve to not be forgotten IMHO.
They are Americans
They were traitors. They are dead traitors. Romanticizing those who betrayed their country to fight to preserve brutal chattel slavery is what keeps much of the south on the wrong side of history to this day.
naw, that would be admitting there was any value to that memorial, and there is not.
there is no value in celebrating the losers of a movement to enslave human beings.
Are you celebrating on cemeteries? We have very different views what they are about.
Whose grave is this memorializing and why was it put up to memorialize them in 1914?
It was memorializing the 852 confederate soldiers buried at Arlington. Think of it like a reminder that it was brother vs brother. That being said I don’t agree with the memorial but definitely don’t agree with not, at least, memorializing the dead buried there in some fashion. No glamour or glitz. Just truth and respect for the dead.
do pedants support racism? please carry on
It wasn’t intended as a memorial, though.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Daughters_of_the_Confederacy
Could we add a historical urinal over top of these “historical” memorials if they are going to stay?
but I would prefer old historical memorial on cemetery to stay.
Try that sentence again, Russian propagandist.
?
It’s so weird how the cons clutch their pearls whenever an accusation of racism is leveled at them, but they tell on themselves all the time when it comes to monuments to racist traitorous scum.
But mah heritage! Mah five years of heritage!
The View has lasted over 5 times longer than the Confederacy.
Fortnite has lasted longer than the confederacy.
Just to sort of pile on, Breaking Bad lasted longer than the Confederacy.
Myspace lasted longer than the Confederacy.
Confederate losers still taking L’s 160 years later
I might support a public restroom to properly memorialize the slaver rebellion
I assumed that would be the most popular attraction at the Trump Presidential Library, but they don’t seem to be building one. I guess you don’t need an entire library to store a copy of The Art of the Deal.
Only if it’s never cleaned.
Republicans are always calling themselves “The Party of Lincoln”. So, why would they want to preserve the statues of Lincoln’s enemies?
It’s almost as if every word uttered by a conservative is deception or manipulation.
That’s a Democrat memorial though, they remind us all the time that the Democrats are really the racists because they supported slavery during the Civil War. And it’s a participation trophy, something else they foam at the mouth and lash their tooth over.
Yep. The parties completely flipped sides on this as a result of Nixon deciding to court the southern vote through appeals to racism
Republicans want to have it both ways. They want to be able to call Democrats the party of slavery and the KKK, but they also want to keep monuments to people who fought for slavery that were erected by people in the KKK.
may all traitors die soon, die mad, and be thrown in the potomac to rot
I grew up within a stone’s throw of where William T. Sherman was born, and I gotta say… I’m in the mood for some southern bbq and a delightful stroll to the ocean.
