Confederate monuments are coming down across the nation, including the state of Alabama. The media would love to make the next pitched battle take place at the Madison County Courthouse in Huntsville.
Located behind some magnolia trees, and at the site of some contentious monuments between “protesters” and law enforcement this week, sits a monument to Confederate soldiers.
The language on the monument reads that it was erected “In memory of the heroes who fell in defense of the principles which gave birth to the Confederate cause.” That “cause” is the state’s rights, specifically the right to allow humans to own other humans.
The monument, created in 1905, is a memorial to “The Lost Cause” and is a prime example of the kind of monument that should probably be moved to a cemetery or a museum and away from a prime location at the county seat.
Statues to human beings are different because human beings are complicated. There are good and bad in all of us. They should be judged accordingly through the lens of the time and treated appropriately.
A caller on my radio show referenced Sam Davis and his statue in Pulaski, Tennessee. This “The Boy Hero of the Confederacy “ is about a 21-year-old Confederate hanged after being caught spying and refusing to give information to the enemy. Do we need to destroy that museum? I don’t think so.
But this raises the question: Where does this stop?
Madison County Commission Chairman Dale Strong appeared on WVNN’s “The Dale Jackson Show,” and it is pretty obvious that he realizes the winds are shifting against these monuments and may be time to prepare to move the one at his courthouse.
Strong said options for the statue are being discussed right now
“We can change the future, and as awful as some of the history is in Alabama, we can’t change what happened 115 years ago, but I do believe that this monument has created some strife in our community, so what we’re doing is we’re looking for a solution to the problem,” Strong stated.
The solution is to move the statue, and that is what the talk is all about. But it will not end there.
A previous radio caller said that this cannot stop with just this monument because streets named after Washington, Jefferson and Madison need to go as well. To not do so is in support of “white supremacy.”
Strong was asked about this and where does it stop. He noted memorials to Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill and World War II veterans have been defaced recently and he thinks that is too far.
Strong said this will not be something Madison County will be doing because that we have to “remember the history.”
He added, “I don’t think that’s even reachable. I mean, you’d have to change, I don’t know how many roads you’d have to change in downtown Huntsville just based on that.”
The idea that we are going to eliminate President George Washington from our history sounds insane to most people, but few expect the thirst of the mob mentality in America to be satiated by toppling a few Confederate memorials. The real fight on this issue will just shift to the next part of America’s “unacceptable” history.
Should people oppose moving Confederate monuments because of what could come next?
No.
But those who are seizing on this momentum should tread lightly because when Lincoln and black Civil War regiments in Massachuttes are caught in the crosshairs, they have lost the plot and the high-ground.
Listen:
Dale Jackson is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts a talk show from 7-11 AM weekdays on WVNN
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