Posted on 12/14/2023 8:48:43 AM PST by Enlightened1
A group of Republican lawmakers are attempting to stop the Pentagon from taking out a Confederate monument belonging to Arlington National Cemetery.
Led by Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA), the group of lawmakers penned a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Monday that demands he leaves the Reconciliation Monument, also known as the Confederate Memorial untouched until at least the conclusion of the fiscal year 2024 appropriations process.
The monument was set to be taken out by the Pentagon’s Naming Commission, a group formed to rename and remove military installations named after the Confederacy. This came in the wake of the 2020 Black Lives Matter riots, Fox News reports
https://x.com/blueandgray1864/status/1735023047940210936
"Despite bipartisan support for this monument, the Naming Commission, established by the Fiscal Year 2021 National Defense Authorization Act, clearly overstepped its legislative authority when it recommended that the Department of the Army remove the Reconciliation Monument from Arlington National Cemetery," the lawmakers wrote.
The Arlington National Cemetery website confirms this removal, with a section stating that "As required by Congress and implemented by the Secretary of Defense, Arlington National Cemetery (ANC) is required to remove the Confederate Memorial located in Section 16 of ANC."
It additionally notes that a "process to prepare for the memorial's careful removal and relocation has been initiated."
Clyde said that the memorial symbolizes American unity after the Civil War rather than bringing honor to the Confederacy, and that its removal would serve to desecrate the graves of Confederate soldiers buried there.
Calls to remove monuments and statues of American historical figures are nothing new; New York City recently weighed a plot to remove George Washington statues as part of a new ‘reparations’ plan.
"[T]he Reconciliation Monument does not honor nor commemorate the Confederacy; the memorial commemorates reconciliation and national unity," the lawmakers' letter continued.
"Furthermore, the Naming Commission’s authority explicitly prohibits the desecration of grave sites. Considering the hundreds of gravestones encircling the monument, it would be impossible for these graves to remain untouched if the Department of the Army proceeds with its proposed removal of the monument – both being a clear violation of Congress’ enacted statute and legislative intent."
Clyde, who is a Navy combat veteran, penned the letter along with 43 other House Republicans, including Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-AL).
The plan is for the statue to be moved to a site owned by the Virginia Military Institute, reports Cardinal News.
"The Department of Defense must respect Congress’ clear legislative intentions regarding the Naming Commission’s legislative authority, and to move forward with removal of the Reconciliation Monument would be a clear affront to the separation of powers principles outlined by our Founding Fathers in our Constitution," the lawmakers wrote.
The Pentagon currently faces a lawsuit over the statue's planned removal from Defend Arlington, a group that represents Confederate veterans, among others.
Cultural genocide - no different then the Taliban.
A national tragedy.
The monument was designed by world renown sculptor Moses Ezekiel, a Jewish VMI Cadet who served in Robert E. Lee’s Army. I believe he is interred there. The removal of the monument should therefore be seen as a violation of Jewish law as regards the disturbance of a gravesite. I’ve donated to the defense in this legal battle. There will be a peaceful reckoning.
This is ridiculous. I had family fighting on both sides.
At the same place on the same day many times.. Battle of Elkhorn Tavern was one.
Destroying or moving monuments from public view won’t change what happened in the past.
I have found my southern ancestors most interesting.
Agreed. We’ll all be better off if the Dims quit trying to make the rest of us feel guilty for the fact that they are the party of slavery and segregation.
So they are saying reconciliation between North and South is ended and the Commission wants us back in the trenches???? - lock and load???
She didn’t start it.
If she’s the nominee and you don’t, that’s stupid.
See posts 15, 18, and 26
Peaceful by hockey standards, maybe.
Peaceful by Lacrosse standards, possibly.
Peaceful by Prussian standards, more likely.
Peaceful by Muslim standards, most likely.
One side or the other of the culture war is probably going to end up extinct in the long run.
This is the absolute worst, most corrupt, evil government in history!
Gee, how Orwellian of them.
Whites owned slaves and ... Blacks owned slaves.
As a matter of fact, Blacks owned Black And ‘White’ Slaves!😮
“She didn’t start it (repudiating, destroying, and rewriting American history).
That is true, but she has eagerly joined in hopes of furthering her political ambitions.
That is not a recommendation.
Dinesh D’Souza, conservative writer, has had an open challenge for several years now to anyone who can find a record of even one Republican who owned a slave. A lot of people have mentioned General Grant, but to that, D’Souza replies that Grant was a Democrat when he owned a slave. (Grant came into possession of a slave, but gave him his freedom in 1859, before the Civil War began and before he joined the Republican Party.) As far as I know, to date, no one has disproved D’Souza’s assertion.
Even cemeteries are not sacred. We were told these court house monuments should be in cemeteries and now that cemetery monuments have to go as well. Ethnic cleansing that would make Mao’s Red Guards happy.
Arlington House was built by George Washington Parke Custis, grandson of Martha Washington. Lee married Custis’s daughter, Mary Anna Custis Lee which is how he came into living there.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arlington_House,_The_Robert_E._Lee_Memorial
D’Souza’s fabulous claim was proven untrue sometime back.
Moreover, the Republican party wasn’t even formed until the 1850s. The party was formed as an anti-expansion-of-slavery-states party.
Whigs or democrats ran the country and both parties owned slaves.
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