Might as well have one more Confederate monument removal story

The whitewashing of history continues in the era of political correctness. This time our seemingly never ending story arc takes us to Louisville, Kentucky, where the Mayor has taken it upon himself to order the removal of a more than one century old monument honoring no specific person or institution, but simply the war dead from the Civil War. That is… until a judge ordered the removal stopped for the time being. (Fox News)

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A Kentucky judge Monday issued a temporary restraining order preventing the city of Louisville from moving a 70-foot-tall Confederate war monument from the spot near the University of Louisville campus where it has stood since 1895.

Jefferson County Circuit Judge Judith McDonald-Burkman issued the order against Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer and the metro area’s government, preventing them from moving, disassembling or otherwise tampering with the monument.

The Sons of Confederate Veterans and Everett Corley, a Republican running for Congress, filed for the restraining order on Monday. They contended that the mayor lacks the authority to remove the monument and did not follow proper protocol.

Some of the fights we’ve seen across the south on this subject have dealt with flags or war memorials erected later in the 20th century, lending at least a sliver of credibility to the idea that the locals put them up in opposition to the civil rights movement. (And in most cases, a “sliver” is putting it kindly.) But this particular monument has stood there since the 1890s, and it was installed in memory of those who died in the war. It doesn’t show the faces of Jefferson Davis, General Lee or any other particular individuals. It’s a depiction of a few battered soldiers with the simple inscription, “To Our Confederate Dead” on one side.

Kentucky didn’t even take a stance in the war in any official sense and families lost a lot of members who fought on both sides. As with too many regions along the border between the Union and the Confederacy, it split families and communities apart and the wounds took a long time to heal. Now the Mayor is rushing to take it down after an editorial in the local paper was published, written by one Ricky Jones (professor of Pan-African studies at Louisville University).

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I’ve written too many of these articles by now to even have the heart to go through it all again. These attempts to bleach history of what happened and to diminish the memories of the families who spilled blood every bit as red as that of the Union soldiers is contemptible. And yet this is the America we live in today, like it or not. This move by the judge is only a temporary stay, so you can probably expect this bit of history to be torn down and hauled off to a basement somewhere in the near future. My sympathies go out to the proud southern families who have no desire for or love of slavery or any other evils, but simply want to preserve the history and heritage of their culture.

LouisvilleConfederate

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