Liberal efforts to erase confederate history run into a snag

It seems that a group of Democrats found their way onto Fort Hamilton army base in New York recently. (Or more likely talked to someone who did.) It’s a really beautiful base if you ever get the chance to visit and, if not, there are some lovely pictures at the link I just provided. The Democrats in question, however, didn’t seem to be impressed with the beauty and history on display, instead being predictably shocked and outraged.

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What’s so offensive about a historic U.S. Army base you might ask? Two of the streets there are named after Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson. It’s part of a wider theme, honoring historic military figures from the revolution and the Civil War. But we’re not supposed to be reminded that the Confederacy ever happened in the oh-so-socially-conscious dawn of the 21st century, so the names have to go.

Sadly for the shocked and offended liberals in question, the Army wasn’t having any of it. (Washington Examiner)

The U.S. Army won’t scrub the names of Confederate generals from a base in New York City, military officials told Congress.

A group of Democratic lawmakers asked the Army in June to rename a pair of streets at Fort Hamilton, in Brooklyn, which currently honoring Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, part of a broader effort to take down Confederate memorials across the country. But the Army rebuffed the appeal.

“After over a century, any effort to rename memorializations on Fort Hamilton would be controversial and divisive,” Diane Rendon, an official in the Army’s bureau of manpower and reserve affairs, wrote in a July 20 letter. “This is contrary to the nation’s original intent in naming these streets, which was the spirit of reconciliation.”

Rep. Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., mocked the decision as a victory for white supremacy. “That ‘reconciliation’ was actually complicity by the North and the South to ignore the interests of African Americans and enforce white supremacy, effectively denying the result of the Civil War for generations,” she said Monday.

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During previous efforts to erase the Confederacy from the pages of history, liberals have been shockingly (and sadly) successful. Anything on public lands under the control of state and local governments can be targeted with boycotts and threats of civil unrest until the offended parties get their way. But this is the Army we’re talking about. If they want the names of those streets changed it’s eventually going to involve getting an answer from the Commander in Chief agreeing with them. How likely do you think that is?

Our stalwart Democrat wasn’t done yet, though, taking to social media and vowing to continue to #RESIST.

Prior to the Civil War there was even more slavery in the country. (Spoiler alert… it wasn’t all in the south.) What say the Democrats just clear the decks entirely. George Washington was a slave owner from the age of 11 until shortly before his death when he finally freed them. He had more than 120 slaves who were his personal property at Mount Vernon. Shouldn’t we re-name the nation’s capital, take down the Washington Monument and remove his visage from all of our money?

And it wasn’t just Washington. Ben Franklin, John Hancock, Patrick Henry, Jefferson and Madison all trafficked in human flesh. Man… we’ve got a lot of renaming to do. Or, better yet, perhaps we should simply burn all the history books that cover the time period from the country’s founding through the end of the civil war.

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Or here’s another thought which might be a bit cheaper and easier. How about we recognize that we’ve never been perfect, though we keep trying to improve ourselves. We have a history and we can honor our historical figures for their place in our story without saying every single thing they ever did was admirable. You can be fairly sure that fifty or a hundred years from now a lot more people will know the name of Stonewall Jackson that that of Yvette Clarke.

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