Posted on 01/27/2004 4:47:46 PM PST by SwinneySwitch
Sons of Confederate Veterans lawsuit demands display of plaques removed in 2000.
Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson says he wants to find a compromise that would allow the state to restore plaques commemorating the Confederacy that were removed from the Texas Supreme Court building in 2000.
The Sons of Confederate Veterans organization has sued to restore the plaques, which were removed under then-Gov. George W. Bush in response to objections by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Patterson belongs to the Confederate descendants' group, but he said he is not actively involved in the lawsuit.
Patterson told the San Antonio Express-News that he wants people to acknowledge the real facts of the Confederacy, for example, by honoring Robert E. Lee, while distinguishing Lee's leadership from the abomination of slavery.
He said the compromise also should "address the concerns of African Americans in Texas who may have an aversion to the battle flag, which is understandable."
Gary Bledsoe, state president of the NAACP, called Patterson's advocacy divisive.
"If Lee had won the war, I wouldn't be making this statement right now, and that fact is unmistakably clear," Bledsoe said.
The case spotlights the discord between those who say they want to honor the South's heritage and sacrifice and those who say the South's heritage has been so tainted by slavery that the government shouldn't exalt it.
On the Capitol grounds, like many Texas county courthouse lawns, is a prominent Confederate soldier monument. Nearby, the University of Texas has statues of Lee and Confederate President Jefferson Davis, as well as a statue of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
Patterson cited a letter in which Lee called slavery evil. Patterson said schoolbook history has tended to ignore that side of Lee and oversimplify Lincoln as the Great Emancipator.
One of the removed plaques depicted a Confederate battle flag and quoted Lee. The other bore the Confederate seal.
The Sons of Confederate Veterans will try to get a judge to rule on the case Feb. 5.
Jerry Patterson has more sense than any politician I know.
Perhaps, but Patterson did not create the issue - the other side made the plaques an issue when they removed them.
And they sure came through for him on election day! He even got a whole 2% of them!
You are absolutely right though - the NAACP thinks they can do whatever they want now and have declared jihad on our monuments and history. As today's events prove, we can't depend on activist judges who invent themselves a barrier to enforcing the clear letter of the constitution and law. We can't depend on the Pilates of elected office who wash their hands of the plaque issue in order to avoid controversy. We have to apply electoral pressure and we have to make a public stand that this PC crap and outright offensive assault on our history will not be tolerated any longer. That's why we're putting it in the Republican Platform and need a united front of Republicans in Texas to make it happen.
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