About ten days ago, in the wake of the Charlottesville clash between some racists and communists, Pensacola Mayor Ashton Hayward decided to jump on the statue removal train. He is for removing the Confederate statue in Lee Square of Confederate soldier Ellsworh Perry, from downtown, where it has been for 126 years when it was dedicated in 1891.
There is an absence of civil discourse on this subject because of the way it is practiced by the political Left, Progressives, Democrats and Antifa, the communist anarchist club. No pun intended, but they do use clubs. To them, if you are against removing a statue from the Confederate/Civil War era, then you are a racist, pure and simple. And, nothing you could say can, or will, cause them to change their mind on the subject, or about you.
This is as close to a reasoned opinion as you’re going to find. From The Pulse.
We can choose to hold fast to the wrong side of history, to cling to relics that glorify a shameful and immoral period in our past, or we can reject them and acknowledge that Confederate symbols are divisive, outdated, and un-American, and have no place in our public spaces in 2017.
Historical perspective? Both sides of the Civil War were composed of Americans. Soldiers and volunteers from both sides of the war, all Americans, were not pondering which side of history they would be on, let alone wondering what people in 2017 might think of them. 500,000 Americans (and their families) who died in the war, were making history.
And much to the chagrin of Democrats, the United States of America became the first country to specifically ban slavery. Not only that, but the first country where the people limited the government. Unlike where they (or anyone else at the time) came from, where the government controlled the people. American Exceptionalism, another concept Democrats like President Obama will deny, comes from these formative years of American history. Our heritage. Democrats have been on the wrong side of civil rights ever since, living on the wrong side of history.
Anyone may ignore American history. Anyone may be offended by American history. And anyone is free to offer an opinion about it. History, for any one who cares, is to learn from and understand what happened at that time, compared to where we are today. In short, giving perspective of where we were, and where we are.
In their time, slavery wasn’t the invention of the Confederate States. Slavery existed on every continent. Slavery still exists today. It even existed in the native American tribes. It is unfair and wrong to judge people from another time by today’s understanding and belief. Removing statues does nothing to change history, nor should anyone try. That’s what the Taliban does.
So if you happen to be driving down South Palafox in Pensacola and you pass a park with a monument in the middle of it, you believe what you want to if or when you see it. Everyone else will do the same. Just don’t make matters worse by going Taliban.
