Posted on 08/14/2017 2:18:10 PM PDT by Drew68
Jacksonville mayor says if City Council passes it, he'll consider signing bill
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - The president of Jacksonville City Council on Monday asked several city departments conduct an inventory of all Confederate monuments, memorials and markers on public property with the intention of asking that they be removed.
"At the end of the day, I’d like to move them," President Anna Brosche said. "I’d like to make sure that we can appreciate the history and heritage of what these memorials, monuments and markers mean to city of Jacksonville. At the same time, also realize that these are symbols that evoke a significant amount of negative emotion for some in our community."
Brosche said her action comes after the "horrific and unacceptable incidents" that occurred in Charlottesville, Virginia, and follows the actions of Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and, most recently, the Florida Senate, who removed Confederate items from public places in Tallahassee.
She directed the Parks and Recreation Department and planning division's Historic Preservation Section to inventory of all Confederate monuments, memorials and markers on public property.
"Upon completion of the inventory, I intend to propose legislation to move Confederate monuments, memorials, and markers from public property to museums and educational institutions, where they can be respectfully preserved and historically contextualized," Brosche said in a statement announcing her plan. "It is important to never forget the history of our great city; and, these monuments, memorials and markers represent a time in our history that caused pain to so many."
Mayor Lenny Curry said Monday that the Virginia tragedy was awful and he respects the City Council's role in making law. If Council passes a bill removing the statues, he will review it and decide whether he will sign it.
"I respect the Council’s role in moving forward with priorities that are their priorities that may not be mine," Curry said. "Look, you can’t be all things to all people. And I’m very focused on a city that’s fighting its way out of violence because public safety was gutted."
Community efforts to have the Confederate soldier marker in Hemming Park removed, as well as similar statutes removed and Confederate Park renamed have been gathering momentum.
After Saturday's deadly violence where a car was driven into a group of people protesting a white supremacist rally in defense of a statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee on Charlottesville property, Take 'Em Down Jax held an emergency rally that night outside the Jacksonville Landing.
“This hate, we have to confront it. If we don’t, it won't go away," Wells Todd said, a member of Take 'Em Down Jax, told News4Jax earlier this summer.
Lakey Love, with the American Civil Liberties Union, agrees that the monuments should be gone.
"I stand for taking them down. They represent white supremacy, a history of racism -- internment of black and brown people," Love said. "I’m all for taking down anything that represents a historical path that marginalizes people."
There are also people in Jacksonville who oppose moving the statues.
"And even though we might not agree with what has happened in the past, I think it’s still part of history and we should not destroy it," said Brian Buschow said.
Dave Nelson, who sells Confederate historical memorabilia at his store, Uncle Davey’s Americana, supports the historical markers, but not the white nationalists who are linking themselves to Confederate history.
"As far as removing the monuments, that’s very sad because these are monuments to veterans or Confederate soldiers. The U.S. Congress said that all veterans are U.S. veterans," Nelson said.
Because most of these monuments are well over 100 years old, some, including Councilman Jim Love, have speculated that they can't be moved without breaking them.
How other Florida cities are dealing with Confederate monuments
Some other Florida cities have either removed Confederate markers or are in the process of doing so. Work removing "Old Joe" from outside the Alachua County Administration building in Gainesville began Sunday and continued Monday.
The statue is being returned to the local chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, which erected it in 1904. The County officials said they did not know where the statue would go, the Gainesville Sun reported.
In June, the city of Orlando removed a statue depicts Johnny Reb -- a symbol of the Confederacy and its soldiers -- from Lake Eola Park. The statue was moved to Greenwood Cemetery, where it will be kept in a section dedicated to Confederate veterans.
In Tampa, a passer-by called 911 after seeing that paint had been tossed on and around the Confederate memorial's columns and derogatory comments were scrawled in paint, the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office said in a news release. The site is on private property near Tampa on Florida's west coast.
Hillsborough County commissioners voted on July 19 to remove a different monument in the county, this one in downtown Tampa and on county property, after several heated meetings filled with public discussion.
The 60-foot-tall granite column, topped by a bronze statue of a Confederate soldier, has been in Jacksonville's Hemming Plaza for nearly 120 years. It’s the site of a monument to Women of the Confederacy that was dedicated in 1915 and a historical marker placed by the Sons of Confederate Veterans to commemorate the May 1914 national reunion of Confederate veterans that took place in Jacksonville.
In March, the Jacksonville City Council Neighborhoods Committee asked the full council to withdraw a bill to designate Hemming Park’s confederate monument as a historical landmark.
Others markers in parks and public areas around the city include a tribute to the women of the Confederacy in Confederate Park and the Gen. Joseph Finnegan grave monument in Jacksonville's Old City Cemetery.
Or are we glossing over that part?
FWIW, I'm not inclined to do that.
Well if you are going to go that route, than so was George Washington and the other founders. The only difference between them and the Confederates is that Mad King George III decided to stop the bloodshed after he had lost 15,000 men.
King Lincoln kept the carnage going until 750,000 people had been killed and the South had been turned into a massive starving wasteland.
Yes, and he resumed his loyalty to the United Kingdom.
Fools. Just like Isis and Alquaeida sp?
Erase historicAL icons so no one knows the history of the past or its progress or regress.
Both can happen.
More rewriting of history.
And how exactly do you know she’s a new transplant?
They already changed the names of Robert E Lee High school...and Forrest High ( named for Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest)here in Jacksonville. Guess that’s not enough...People who forget the past are bound to repeat it...we are so close to Civil War 2 its almost unbelievable!
Blow up Gettysburg. Of course the people who make a living off it won’t be too happy. But if it saves one snowflake will be worth it
Blow up Gettysburg. Of course the people who make a living off it won’t be too happy. But if it saves one snowflake will be worth it
Nope
The way I view it the solders had little choice - they fought honorably and I don’t hold it against them. It’s the politicians that I consider traitors - namely jeff davis.
Let’s destroy all American history - it’s gonna ‘trigger’ something in ‘the black community’.... maybe our success makes they feel ‘inferior’... Maybe our music reminds them their music wasn’t ‘first’ for years and years.
And not just Southern Civil War remnants - destroy all the Northern Statues too. Anything that reminds ‘the black community’ of slavery needs to be destroyed. Plantation homes in the South that survived? Tear ‘em down. Whatever it takes...Street Names? Change em. Books about the civil war? Burn ‘em. Black Americans are a bottomless pit of resentment. The most unpleasant minority group in the history of the United States.
Our country lost more citizens to the Civil War than to all the wars combined.. We died to end slavery. But that’s not enough for the black community. Nope, nothing is ‘enough’ for them... they wallow in their grievances... ginned on by the white liberal elites they prop up.
“President Anna Brosche said. “I’d like to make sure that we can appreciate the history and heritage of what these memorials, monuments and markers mean to city of Jacksonville.”
No. No, she doesn’t want that, at all. She wants to strip away the history of this nation, distill it down to the elements that support her silly BS logic, and protects the delicate sensibilities of the snowflakes that she and those like her have dumbed down to the lowest common denominator of logic imaginable.
ISIS would be so proud.
And how exactly do you know she’s a new transplant?
Apparently, she isn’t a recent arrival but has no family roots to the area. But a lot of the folks pushing this stuff are noobs. There is massive growth at the moment in the Jax metro area. It will be completely unrecognizable in a decade, IMO. Just another Florida megalopolis with little connection to it’s southern heritage.
If they are to be relocated, I recommend the new location be far enough from the probable hypocenter of any urban area so that in the event a sinister force creates a peak over pressure of 2 psi or more, the memorial will remain intact. After such an event - and a couple of hostile nations are now promising many such events - the remaining populations will need heroic symbols to inspire them.
Yep. It's growing in every direction. Additionally, there's a lot of military transplants like myself who bought dirt cheap homes out here and decided to stay.
Get rid of the MLK, Jr. monuments, too.
They offend people, too.
Your statement is an important one.
I've been watching this phenomenon since the Charlotte shootings (or better said as a consequence of the Charlotte shootings). I've said all along that it should best be responded to as a local issue - that beyond having a right to express an opinion, it really was none of my business. The last thing we needed was an agitator like Øbongo stirring the pot. Well, he weighed in and things have only gotten worse.
The decision best belongs to the residents of the community. It's their community and their choice on how they want it to look. This should rightly be a test of the power brokers of these communities.
I've been surprised at the lack of resolve by local movers and shakers. Do we interpret that as a change of sentiment? Is it a lack of will? Are they conceding to political correctness? I don't have those answers, but I do have my suspicions.
And I do know one thing for certain - if they acquiesce to the stormfront crowd they are gonna lose everything.
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