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Confederate Statues Are Torn Down—Who’s Next?
Margaret Thatcher, at Hillsdale College
The latest brouhaha about moving a Confederate statue called Silent Sam took place at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The statue was originally pulled down in August, and now university administrators must keep it on campus; a state law was passed in 2015 prohibiting state agencies from “permanently removing or relocating state-owned memorials or statues.” UNC Chancellor Carol Folt stated, “I have a preference to move it off campus, but, like everyone here, I swore to obey the law.” How noble of her.
The university is considering a proposal to build a history and education center to house the statue and other historical artifacts; the announcement of this proposal on Monday led to the latest campus protest. The administrators will decide next week whether to move forward with the proposal for the new center.
Although “white supremacists” (and not normal American citizens) supposedly are the ones who have demanded the Confederate statues remain in place, many of us are probably ambivalent about these statues; they remind of us a difficult time in American history, a period of racism and violence. Yet we also know that reminders of those times are a way to demonstrate our willingness to face our past and point to the lessons we have learned.
I began thinking, however, about the implications of these removals of Confederate statues, and where it could lead us.
What other criteria could be used to condemn celebrated Americans who are memorialized in statues? We have already seen school curricula altered to support the propaganda of the Left: Christopher Columbus has been turned into a destroyer of Native Americans; George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were racists (slave owners), as were other presidents. As The Federalist points out today, Harry Truman was an anti-Semite. Other admired politicians could be targeted, such as Margaret Thatcher, who broke the unions in England.
So this is not just about removing the statues of Confederate soldiers. It might just be the first step in removing any statues of people who didn’t, or don’t, accept the Progressive agenda.
An interesting sidenote worthy of mentioning is that the University of California, Irvine, rejected a proposal to erect a statue to Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who risked his life to save 100,000 Hungarian Jews from Nazi death camps. They gave no explanation for their refusal.
Why do statues make such powerful statements? I believe they take ideas and embody them in stone, providing a visual, visceral impact. They are also continually displayed for everyone to see, making a statement about our Founders, about freedom, about leadership, and about values. Although many people over time might just walk by them without noticing them, others might stop to view and contemplate them, at least the first time they pass. These people who are carved in stone or bronze tell all who view them that they are worthy of remembering and honoring for generations.
So removing Confederate statues may just be the prelude to a larger, more insidious plan.
And statues may not be the only monuments affected. A Detroit High School has threatened to remove Ben Carson’s name. Don’t worry—if it happens, it won’t be until 2019.
Published in Culture
At a cost of $5.8 million for construction and $800,00 annually for operations.
I think the letter of the law would require that Silent Sam be replaced on his pedestal. Spend some of that money earmarked for the new building on some real security, and expel any student found to vandaize or attempt to vandalize the statue.
Hmm…guess I’m not cut out for the college administration racket.
Neither am I, @danok1. Part of the complaint about the statue is that its potential new housing would be unsafe, since white supremacists could go there. Good grief. It’s time for the universities to use these issues as teaching moments. Life can be ugly, but we are called by it to learn from it, to integrate its meaning into our lives. What happens when we compromise our values (such as all humans are equal in the eyes of G-d–even white supremacists)? How do we live worthy lives? And someone should tell those kids that Silent Sam can’t jump off his pedestal and bonk them on the head. Then again, I wish he could!
Let’s start with Faneuil Hall then once that’s torn down move on to Confederdate statues. And, if we can’t get the hall torn down then we don’t get to tear Confederate statues down.
When Progressivism is your Religion, that other Religion’s First Commandment will apply universally.
What really is the difference between the motivation of the Woke Student and the actions of the Taliban with respect to Antiquities? Or the Roman Rulers in England? Or the Stalinists in Russia?
All were certain they were keeping their flock on the straight & narrow.
Susan, Silent Sam represents all those in the Confederacy who lost their lives. That includes young soldiers who found themselves in battle because, well, because young men respond when they are called — as I did once.
Have you ever seen those heart-rending photos of the dying and dead on a Civil War battlefield? Those young men went to war, as young men are wont to do, and got shot up and were sometimes left to rot on the battlefield.
How can anyone be so heartless as to pull down a statue that represents the Confederate dead? The Left have hardened their hearts.
I want to cut the hard Left some slack. Then I read about their eager destruction of our memorials.
Maybe we should try to point that out to them, @tedrudolph! That is an insightful comparison to make. And unnerving, too. Would you like to elaborate?
Beautifully said, @kentforrester. I have seen those pictures. And I know that the stoic US Grant was deeply moved by the deaths of all the soldiers, not just the union. He insisted that all bodies be treated respectfully. Too bad the far Left doesn’t do the same. Thanks.
The discussion between Jordan Peterson and Camille Paglia explains what’s going on. The Progressives want to erase history or, to the extent they can’t erase it, rewrite history so that no one is able to see the predictable consequences of their policies. “There is nothing (good) to be learned from the past” is the rallying cry of Progressivism. (Makes you wonder what was the foundation for Marx’s class struggle theory.) It puts your feelings on a par with or above any scholarly analysis of what mankind has learned from millennia of existence. You don’t have to prove that you are the pinnacle of humanity, you just are because you are “now.”
Statues of historical figures are a visible challenge to this philosophy so long as they are permitted to exist. At best they need to be framed in negative terms lest history be permitted to hurt your feelings.
Triple Like!
I am a grandson of early 20th century Italian immigrants on my father’s side and I am not familiar with my ancestry on my mother’s side.
So, I don’t know of any ancestors of mine who fought on either side of the American Civil War.
However, having read various histories of the war, including criticisms of Lincoln, I have concluded that the Confederates were the bad guys. The Unionists weren’t perfect. But I am glad the Unionists won.
I realize that some people have identified with the Confederacy because they were “rebels” and many of us like to occasionally get in touch with our inner rebel, the person who doesn’t just accept what the authorities tell us.
But I do think that some people have said positive things about the Confederacy based on a radical libertarian ideology, the idea that a state should be allowed to secede from the Union for any reason at all, secession “on demand.” Others have said positive things about the Confederacy because they like the idea of white supremacy. They see the United States of America becoming more multi-ethnic and they yearn for a time and place when white people ruled with an iron fist.
Does that mean I want all of the Confederate statues torn down? No. If a Confederate statue exists for the purpose of giving people a history lesson, I support that.
But if a Confederate statue exists or a street/highway is named after a Confederate General for the purpose of demonstrating to African-Americans that whites can still “put blacks in their place,” then don’t be surprised if a city council or a state legislature decides to rename some of these streets/highways and tear down some of these statues.
I oppose the ideas of the Southern Confederacy for the reason given by Alexander Stephens, the Vice President of the Confederacy, in Stephens’ cornerstone speech:
Stephens did not subscribe to the universalist aspirations to which I subscribe. I believe the sentiment expressed by Stephens was the heart and soul of the Southern Confederacy.
So, tear them down if the statues are meant as a means of humiliating African-Americans. Keep them up if the statues are means to educate us.
We’re mostly on the same page, @HeavyWater. The problem is, who gets decide what the purpose is of any given statue? I would like to think that the students wanting to tear down the statues are actually the racists or at least bigots, since they want to suppress lots of people today. I also want to believe that in these times, most people favor the outcome of the Civil War. There will always be those who support the other side (as you eloquently explain), but this is a time when the majority should win out. Sorry, kids. (not really)
They’re tearing down the statues that remind people of the Democratic party’s past and the progressive party’s origins. That’s how totalitarians use mindless mobs.
Ooooh, good point, @iwalton. Although those kids have no clue that the Democrats started the KKK and spearheaded racism. I suspect there are those who are using them–aside from the kids being motivated by their own foolishness and naivete.
I’d like the discussion about whether to change the name of Jefferson Davis Highway to Martin Luther King highway to be civil and resolved democratically, usually by a city council or a state legislature.
I don’t want these decisions made by spoiled brat undergraduates.
What was the Roman deal with English antiquities?
Our K-12 educational institutions are run by leftists, almost without exception. For the most part, the K-12 curriculum never touches on the excesses of the French Revolution, the Russian Revolution, the Stalin Era, Maoist China, or Pol Pot’s Cambodia. I’m starting to think it is because America’s leftist educators know that teaching the kids about these horrors risks making the kids skeptical of leftism’s bromidic, pie-in-the-sky promises.
of course kids always are at the head of the mobs
If you are making the argument that since racist Democrats put these statutes up a century and more ago, today’s conservatives should be arguing that’s why they should be kept in place, it’s a loser argument.
Churchill has to go (imperialist). Also, MLK has to go (misogynist, “content of character” is a dog whistle for “meritocracy”, which is a dog whistle for “white supremacy”).
Don’t be silly Susan…
…..although I understand admiring biographies of Lee and Jackson do combust at 451 degrees.
Speaking as a Southerner, the statues are supported because they honor our ancestors for the virtue of fighting for their family and homeland, and to celebrate our identity and culture, which to an extremely large extent was founded in the crucible of the Civil War.
The fact that you seem unaware of that, or seem to think its a minor motivation compared to the small number of people supporting the statues for racist reason, speaks volumes, and conveys a distinct lack of respect or regard for what is essentially the voting bulwark of the modern Republican party, and the culture that motivates and sustains it. You don’t have to personally like Confederate statutes to defend them, you simply have to appreciate their importance to millions of good-hearted conservatives (the overwhelming majority of non-progressive Southern whites) under orchestrated cultural assault and demonization by the progressive Left, and defend them on that basis. Not to mention the recognition that they are the canary in the coal mine, and everything being employed to Nazify my ancestral and cultural heritage is likewise being used to vilify our shared American heritage.
Its precisely in response to this type of anti-Southern prejudice and politicized bigotry that I chose my avatar.
Not what I was saying. But I can’t speak for @iwalton
I do understand that many Southerners support Confederate statues because they honor their ancestors.
I tried to make that point, perhaps ineffectively, by mentioning the radical libertarians, who believe that an individual state within the United States has the right to secede for any reason. I described this belief as secession “on demand.”
But I personally reject secession on demand.
I am glad that the Confederacy was crushed by the Unionists, even though I acknowledge that the Unionists were not perfect.
I stand by what I wrote earlier, in a subsequent comment.
If a city or state wants to re-name Jefferson Davis highway to Martin Luther King highway, I would support that.
I would also support tearing down many Confederate statues, but I would also support allowing some of the Confederate statues to remain, as a feature of history.
I don’t put Confederates on the same moral level as the Nazis. But I do believe that the Confederate cause was immoral.
I think today’s Southerners should reject the Southerners of over a century and a half past who fought for a cause that was immoral. Granted, that’s just my opinion. But it’s my opinion nonetheless. We will have to agree to disagree on this one.
As time goes on and more people move around the country, the South will be composed of proportionately fewer Southerners who trace their ancestry to the Confederacy. So, over time, there will be less support for the statues. That’s okay. It’s time that we realized that the Confederacy was wrong.
Should Germany have no war memorials to their dead for Wwii?
I think war memorials are generally appropriate, even when one might consider the cause for which the war was fought was an immoral cause.
On the other hand, if a group of elected officials wants to tear down a statue and replace it with a different statue, that’s perfectly reasonable.
Let’s point something else out that doesn’t get mentioned often enough.
Many Southerners fought for the Confederacy because they were forced to fight. If you lived evaded the draft, the punishment could be death. This was true in the North also.
So, if someone has an ancestor who fought for the Confederacy, that doesn’t mean that this ancestor wanted to fight. The Confederacy wanted soldiers and they forced people into the fight.
In the 21st century we should be willing to admit that the Confederacy was an immoral cause. We should look upon it with the mood of regret.
Thank you for telling me how I should feel. I don’t always know.
Ben Carson had a school named after him and the name was changed because he is conservative. OK with that?
Don’t you ever get tired of trolling?
Since I don’t Troll, would be hard to get tired of it.
And rich you defending someone else. He is a big boy, able to dish it out. Let him speak for himself.
Until I hear someone say they want to rename all the things in West Virginia that are named for Robert Byrd (a memeber of good standing for a long time in the KKK) I will be for leaving statues where they stand. Instead of being “offended”, use it a a teaching tool (of course that would mean knowing history). The people behind most of this are paid disrupters. I dare say most have no idea or even care about the history behind any of the things they protest.
To frown on book burning doesn’t mean one is defending any particular book. It’s incumbent on us to use their Orwellian gestures to make our points about Democrats and progressives because they remain the party of racism, tearing down a statue of their ancestors doesn’t change that fact.