Posted on 08/15/2017 2:40:10 PM PDT by cmj328
Last weekend, I watched with horror as events in Charlottesville unfolded. Having served as North Carolina Attorney General for 16 years, I am all too familiar with the racism, bigotry and full-out white supremacy that exist in corners of our society. But it was shocking to watch these elements displayed so publicly — venom and hatred shamelessly spewed in epithets. My stomach sank to learn that a peaceful counter-protester had been killed and many others injured as the hatred morphed into violence.
It started with a monument, stone and metal, inanimate and yet more provocative now than ever. Charlottesville could have been Raleigh, or Asheboro, or any other city in North Carolina that is home to a Confederate monument. I don’t pretend to know what it’s like for a person of color to pass by one of these monuments and consider that those memorialized in stone and metal did not value my freedom or humanity. Unlike an African-American father, I’ll never have to explain to my daughters why there exists an exalted monument for those who wished to keep her and her ancestors in chains.
Some people cling to the belief that the Civil War was fought over states’ rights. But history is not on their side. We cannot continue to glorify a war against the United States of America fought in the defense of slavery. These monuments should come down.
Our Civil War history is important, but it belongs in textbooks and museums — not a place of allegiance on our Capitol grounds. And our history must tell the full story, including the subjugation of humans created in God’s image to provide the back-breaking labor that drove the South’s agrarian economy.
I understand the frustration of those fed up with the pace of change. But after protesters toppled a statue in Durham Monday night, I said there was a better way to remove these monuments.
My first responsibility as governor is to protect North Carolinians and keep them safe. The likelihood of protesters being injured or worse as they may try to topple any one of the hundreds of monuments in our state concerns me. And the potential for those same white supremacist elements we saw in Charlottesville to swarm the site, weapons in hand, in retaliation is a threat to public safety.
It’s time to move forward. And here’s how I plan to do that.
First, the North Carolina legislature must repeal a 2015 law that prevents removal or relocation of monuments. Cities, counties and the state must have the authority and opportunity to make these decisions.
Second, I’ve asked the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources to determine the cost and logistics of removing Confederate monuments from state property as well as alternatives for their placement at museums or historical sites where they can be studied in context.
Third, the North Carolina legislature should defeat a bill that grants immunity from liability to motorists who strike protesters. That bill passed the state House and remains alive in the Senate. The Senate should kill it. Full stop. Those who attack protesters, weaponizing their vehicles like terrorists, should find no safe haven in our state.
Conversations about race and our past are never simple or easy. They are deeply personal and emotional. As President Lincoln said, we must do this work “with malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in to bind up the nation’s wounds.” President Lincoln was on point: we must do what we know is right, and we must do it the right way.
What bit him ? Good grief!
Let’s take money from the poorer schools and use it to blow up statues.
It will make NC a safer place. Crime is rampant on most of them plus they have huge illegal drug markets openly operating on them. There should also be fewer shootings - not to mention fewer prostitution rings and outrageous "music" noise.
Every town and city has a MLK street.
Should New Yorkers destroy the statue of RALPH KRAMDEN that is in NYC! He threatened to beat his wife! “POW! ZOOM, TOO THE MOON!”
I’m a yankee, retired in rural Texas. I respect these peoples heritage.
These monuments have nothing to do with slavery. They strictly honor that man or that man on that horse.
Anything other than that is total BS
How did this guy get elected? Impeach him now!
Trump brought up that same point today in his excoriation of the dishonest degenerates that masquerade as “reporters”.
Strangely, this bit hasn’t made it into any of the news.
We have to stop caving on EVERYTHING, grow our collective spines back, and draw lines in the sand. When those lines are crossed, which they're sure to be, we have to be ready to fight back, in sufficient numbers to defeat the Leftists.
That means we have to be ready to take punches in the nose and bike locks to the head, but it has to be done. The Leftists are bullies, and bullies don't respect anything but brute force. It's not only long past time to stop caving, people...it's time to start throwing punches and swinging bats ourselves. Grow some balls, 'cause our sheepish pacifism of the last three decades have gotten us to where we are today.
Oh yeah, and grow some political balls, too, and primary those RINO scumbags out of office!
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
As a Democrat, he got elected the old-fashioned way: by voter fraud in November.
What this country needs is a strong education from grade one through college as it is, this nation has been hornswaggled into a vast crevasse of less education and more social engineering by teachers and text book authors, some who think if your child is happier with 2+2=5, then so be it! Rewritten history to fit an agenda.... Common Core. Liberal to the Core.
Thinking collectively rather than individually...has placed American children at intellectual risk. Today we have a generation of people who reflect what their Marxist teachers and professors...need safe spaces, offended often, don't respect our Constitution or America...probably would run if ever they were called to defend the country....they have little skin in the game....they have little education about this nation and more about how to blame it rather than understanding our history and respecting that.
Thank heavens for President Trump, a very strong and God fearing man who loves his country. People like the Clintons and Obamas who hate all things dictated by our Declaration and Constitution...they don't see how Europe and South America have fallen into crevasses of Socialism/Marxism....they have failed America while enriching themselves....-
Why did IDIOT Republicans let Roy Cooper be Governor
Perhaps the former gov. was too good to associate with DJT.
Back in the day, many of the repubs were ashamed of the late senator Jesse Helms, he wasn’t good enough for their sorry libertine societies. He won with democrat support and beat the the dhimmis had to throw at him.
Idiots
Bob Goodlatte is da man. Glad we left WNC, despite Mark Meadows, the place is a sewer of the worst filth.
Caddis the Elder
Because the winners who write and publish the history books make sure to leave out all the ugly parts that don't fit their desired narrative.
Corwin Amendment? What's that?
Can’t stand this weasely, cheating slime bag.
I miss Pat McCrory every time I see him.
“Who would they put in his place? “
Put Reagan there. Watch heads explode.
>
The American public detests the MSM so much that they are at the lowest level in approval evah!
>
Sorry, way too many ignorant minds get their FEELINGS, I mean talking points, I mean commentary, I mean ‘news’ from the *FREE* OTA news. The best ‘counter’ is the ever-leaning-Left Fox news on cable. IOW, there’s NO counter to the MSM. At. ALL.
Course, if the (R) were smart (BWAHAHAHAHAhahahahaha), they could use this to de-fund the EPA, NEA, PP, etc. as *SOME ONE* might get offended, so NO taxpayer $$ will be used to promote offensive and possibly hateful works (a la ‘piss Christ’ or ‘Dung Mary’).
When someone says “studied in context”, they mean destroy or hide from any public view.
Gfys, Roy.
I don’t care why the war was fought...although states rights WAS the reason, regardless of why. Bottom line , it happened and 500,000 men died.
You read your history, Roy boy...Southerners were welcomed back and treated with honors.
YOU are not taking anything down.
We tried to re-elect McCrory...I think he was robbed.
But you were so close to all those beautiful trout siesta.
Trying my dangdest to get closer to wnc
Hmmm maybe near Robbins....
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