Confederate General Robert E. Lee Statue
It has been reported the city of Charlottesville in Virginia is handing over the bronze statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee to an African American museum to melt the statue into something “more representative” of the city’s new values.
I am wondering what those “new values” may be.
The city council voted to hand over the statue to the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center. The center has proposed to melt the bronze statue and repurpose it for another public art project.
The “Swords Into Plowshares” project “will allow Charlottesville to contend with its racist past.”
I guess the city of Charlottesville continues to be a racist place to live? Contending with the past in the present, implies, to me, the present continues to be as bad as the past.
Andrea Douglas, the museum’s executive director was quoted as saying, “It really is about taking something that had been harmful and transforming it into something that is representative of the city’s values today.”
Of course, Ms. Douglas won’t tell you what or whose values. I will like to ask Ms. Douglas how’s history harmful? Isn’t hiding the truth more dangerous than having a history to talk about?
I would love to ask the local high school student, who in 2015 petitioned for the statue to be taken down, if he or she could tell you how many Americans died during the Civil War or if he or she knew the real reasons for the Civil War.
Judging by the sorry state of our government education system, I would bet this student wouldn’t know the answers.
This is nothing more than more ‘Woke Movement’ shenanigans.
To me, this is not about a statue, this is an attempt by some people to re-write history to fit a narrative that doesn’t exist in modern day United States.
Does racism exist in the world? Absolutely! But we can’t go around canceling everything that we don’t like about our history.
History is the only thing that stands the test of time, and it doesn’t matter how many statues you remove, hide, or melt, the facts will always remain the same.
The Jefferson School can go ahead and melt the statue and make whatever they think is going to sooth their soul with it, at the end of the day, whatever they make with it will be made with the same bronze used to build the statue.
I can see the conversation going this way, ‘Son, that used to be the statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee.’
General Lee’s statue may be gone, but his place in history will never be.
You can’t melt history away.