That elusive common ground (Dig up General Nathan Bedford Forrest)

Commercial Appeal (Memphis) ^ | July 26, 2005 | Editorial Staff

[zipper]

Editorial 07/26: That elusive common ground July 26, 2005

Extreme points of view tend to get most of the ink, but those who seek the middle ground should not be discouraged.

Such is the case in the dispute over the recommendation by the Center City Commission and Shelby County Commissioner Walter Bailey to rename Memphis parks whose names suggest continued allegiance to the Confederacy...

[snip]

Memphis attorney Karl Schledwitz, perhaps best known for leading the campaign to bring pandas to the Memphis Zoo, is the architect of this very different sort of move.

Schledwitz said he had the necessary parties on board for a plan to move the bodies of Nathan Bedford Forrest and his wife, along with a statue of Forrest aboard his horse, from what is now known as Forrest Park to a more appropriate site at Elmwood Cemetery....

[snip]

The Schledwitz solution might not be perfect, but it deserves a fair hearing. Council member Carol Chumney expressed the hopes of many: that "there can be some kind of a win-win scenario created where this community can walk away feeling united and positive."

Win-win scenarios seem to show up with the approximate frequency of ivory-billed woodpeckers, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't look for them. Fortunately, Memphis has people who are willing to stick their necks out in the effort to find solutions that will defuse volatile situations.....

The choice before the community now is whether to give those who advocate reconciliation a chance to make their case or keep the sabers rattling.

[zipper]

The left-wing editors at Commercial Appeal seem to think that digging up Nathan Bedford Forrest and his wife, banishing his monument to an old cemetery, and renaming the parks is a "compromise" worth seeking. And anyone that opposes the "compromise" is "saber-rattling", a deliberate military metaphor, meaning they are still fighting the Civil War. The fact is, the initiative for provoking this outrage goes to the politicians (especially Walter Bailey) that proposed this politically-correct rewriting of history to begin with. "To the victor go the spoils", the saying goes-- and I'm not just talking about the Yankees winning the war-- this is much more of a racial issue. The now-majority black leadership of Memphis wants to cleanse the history of Memphis to the point of rewriting it through the renaming of historic parks, and through the demeaning of one of the greatest Generals of the Civil War (or perhaps THE greatest according to Robert E. Lee) Nathan Bedford Forrest.

[zipper]

In a related development:

July 23, 2005
International Sons of Confederate Veterans
Columbia, Tennessee

 PRESS RELEASE

SONS OF CONFEDERATE VETERANS

TO FUND MEMPHIS PARKS LITIGATION

The Sons of Confederate Veterans meeting in Nashville, Tennessee, at their annual convention held at the Sheraton Music City Hotel, by unanimous resolution of nearly 1000 delegates, have approved an emergency donation of $10,000 to be used to combat efforts to rename the Confederate parks in Memphis, Tennessee, and to assist the Nathan Bedford Forrest Camp #215 of Memphis in defense of the Confederate parks.

The $10,000 represents the first installment of cash from the national organization to the Forrest Camp, is unfettered, and will be used for any and all defense purposes including litigation. Commander-in-Chief Denne Sweeney of Dallas, Texas, stated “this outrageous affront to our Southern heritage will be met with every financial and legal means available to the Sons of Confederate Veterans. The park renamings and monument removals are tantamount to an ethnic cleansing.”

The Sons of Confederate Veterans is a 35,000 member national organization headquartered in Columbia, Tennessee, and is dedicated to accurate history and the protection of the good name of the Confederate soldier. Great Southern historical figures such as Nathan Bedford Forrest and Jefferson Davis are sacred to not only our membership but to millions of Americans who will object on a large scale should any further attempt be made by the Memphis City Council to revise history and vilify Confederate leaders.

Anyone desiring information concerning this press release should contact Brag Bowling at 804.389.3620.

Brag Bowling
National Press Officer
Sons of Confederate Veterans

[tsomer]

So they finally dare to disturb his bones. Dead 100 + years, I guess they figure its finally safe.

[Politicalities]

Hey, great idea. Also, let's disinter Thomas Jefferson and throw the slaveowning bastard's bones into a landfill. While we're at it, let's exhume the body of Charles Lindbergh and expunge his memory from our national consciousness.. sure, he was an aviation pioneer and an American hero, but he was rabidly isolationist and had sympathies for the Third Reich. Also, let's urinate all over the grave of Martin Luther King, Jr., and remove his moniker from every street which bears his name, because he was an adulterer and had links to the Communists. Because, after all, everybody knows that perfection is the only relevant standard, and to be imperfect is to be loathsome.

[zipper]

defenders of history ping

[jblair]

Memphis government is corrupt and full of room temperature IQ's. For all intents and purposes, the city is a hell hole.

[zipper]

Exactly! Oh and don't forget MLK was a plagiarist, but who's counting.

Glad you brought that up. From what I've read another common discrediting argument about Thomas Jefferson is specious-- it is true (through DNA) that some of his genes were found in offspring of one of his slaves (Sally Hemmings, I think her name was (?)-- but the father could have been another male in his lineage, such as his uncle, brother, etc., and it likely was. So there's no proof, just innuendo. But enough innuendo for history books to be re-written by the lefties writing and selecting textbooks for the public schools.

[zipper]

For more background on this issue here's an earlier thread from a related story a couple of days ago.

[oyez]

They will probably try to erase all the white peoples' names of the past off public property because they are considered racist in some way. I'm sure they will start with the city's founders, because they probably must have owned slaves.The City Memphis has serious problems with its schools, revenue, and government officals. Changing the name of the parks draws attention away from all that. When Walter Bailey runs for mayor he can claim that he saved the city from dead Confederate heroes.

[AggieCPA]

Run Nathan Bedford Forrest, RUN!

[cryptical]

Run Nathan Bedford Forrest, RUN!

That's funny, I don't care who you are...

[Steve_Stifler]

That's gotta be the funniest thing on the internet tonight. Of course, now you've got me wondering what Nathan Bedford's mama is willing to do to keep her son resting in peace in his current spot . ..

[Don W]

While I understand your bitter humor with the whole scenario, this is still ugly and without merit in a society that prides itself on openness and free expression.

Revisionism is anathema to a free society, and PC-ism is merely the latest attempt of the genuine fascists to undermine free expression.

A POX upon those who oppose the ideals of freedom!

[ravinson]

...the demeaning of one of the greatest Generals of the Civil War (or perhaps THE greatest according to Robert E. Lee) Nathan Bedford Forrest.

He was an effective general, for sure, but "great" implies more than good, and Forrest was a ruthless slave trader who executed surrendering negro Union soldiers at Fort Pillow. He was a very bad man -- not a "great" general at all, and no one should be surprised that the decendants of the people he treated so brutally should desire to remove any place of honor bestowed on him or his remains.

[Coldwater Creek]

Seems like to me that you a Canadian understands the situation of rewriting history a lot better that some of those that live in Memphis.

[Coldwater Creek]

You seem to ignore the fact that this country was in a civil war. You can not rewrite history, and just maybe these memorials can be a reminder not to repeat history.

Nathan Bedford Forrest did not subscribe to the treatment of blacks by the KKK and denounced their crimes.

Also you do not live in Memphis, and do not understand that Black politicians want a White free society here.

[rogue yam]

Forrest was "ruthless" exactly how?

Yes, he traded slaves. For those to whom this is all that matters, well, this is all that matters.

But since you call him a "ruthless" slave trader, you are at least pretending to say more.

So what, exactly, is your additional implication?

[rogue yam]

...who executed surrendering negro Union soldiers at Fort Pillow.

This is far from an objectively established fact. The Union forces suffered a defeat at the hands of Forrest's forces, to be sure. But whether any were executed is, to my estimation, unknowable to us.

[colonel mosby]

Moving the graves and statue to Elmwood Cemetery almost guarantees that they will be vandalized. Elmwood is in a very bad area of town, and these sleazy lawyers and politicians know damn well that there would be virtually no security to maintain the gravesites or the statue.

I think that the SCV should move the Forrest graves and statue to the Shiloh battlefield, and have a huge ceremony proclaiming the final surrender of Memphis to political correctness. The SCV can turn the tables on Memphis by letting the city wallow in it's own financial and spiritual bankruptcy.

Memphis is a town undergoing serious urban decay. The SCV can help accelerate the death of this sorry excuse for a city.

Let Memphis rot, and let Nathan Bedford Forrest reside on far more hallowed ground.

[ohioman]

Shove it up your
Yankee Ass. Forest was a great man.