EDITORIAL:ALBEMARLE SUPERVISORS NEED TO TAKE A STAND ON THE STATUE PETITION
The ignorance of the left has to be checked.
How ridiculous is it going to get before people in and around Charlottesville say enough? We have already lost three lives due to ignorant fools and their ignorant agendas. Now they want to remove the Confederate soldier statue “At the Ready” from in front of the courthouse. The origin of which as outlined by the Daily Progress, in 1909 at its dedication, was from the Daughters of the Confederacy, who were preserving the memory of those Confederate Soldiers who died in the war “and since.” Think for a moment of who these women were. They lost fathers, and grandfathers, and uncles, and brothers to the cause. They are not anything like the modern day social justice warriors who have never gone more than one night without electricity. These are people who chopped wood for heat, and got their water from a well. These are people who tried to pick up the tattered pieces of their life and carry on without the benefit of a patriarch. Now thirty five years after the war they began a ten year path to dedicate a monument to those who served Virginia as best they could. The overwhelming majority had no slaves, nor the power or political clout to do anything about it if they wanted to. To them it was to serve Virginia against an invading army. No different than the men who were drafted to go off to Vietnam and fight a war on faith. Should we attack the Vietnam Memorial next? Are we entitled through revisionist history and ignorance to deny them their monument to their loss? Notice it was not Republicans who spit on the returning Vietnam Vets.
The men this statue Honors and remembers were Virginians. They were country folk who seldom saw a newspaper, and got their news at the General Store or church supper, and when the Militia turned into the Confederate Army, they went as the loyal Virginia Patriots that they were. The US government had raised an Army to attack its own, and just like in 1776 when the British did the same thing, these men took the fight to the enemy. For them it was as simple as that. These women were finally at a place in their lives where they could make something happen and did so. Thousands of people attended the Ceremony with a parade that included the “colored” Confederate support troops. Congressman S.J. McCall from Massachusetts in his speech paid tribute to General Lee and all of the soldiers of Northern Virginia, stating that if Lee and his men could not topple the Union then “nothing would overthrow it and it would be a thing immortal.” The crowd cheered. The statue has an inscription “lest we forget,” and in one the speeches given, it was stated that the war was not treasonous as “no conviction was ever made.” In the single reference to slavery it was said that emancipation did not abolish slavery as much as it enslaved everyone including all people and all places. Profound words when you see how far the Government has intruded into our lives.
These southerners, mostly children at the time, had just spent nearly half a century rebuilding from the devastation caused by a war they did not start. They lived through the carpetbaggers, the crooked bankers, and the tax men, all who fought to see who was going to get their homestead. It is easy to say “What about the emancipated slaves? Did they not suffer? Yes, they surely did. Abraham Lincoln was such an incompetent leader that he “freed” four million people out into the wilderness with no money, no education, no food, no healthcare and no friends. That is a large reason why blacks are still suffering to this day. But this statue is not about them, and I seriously doubt that any of the Daughters of the Confederacy would speak ill of any African Americans wishing to honor their suffrage.
What this statue is about is Honor. It is about honoring fathers and sons, and brothers and uncles. It is about honoring people who cared enough about their family to take to arms in their defense. We cannot allow ignorant Social Justice Warriors to take that away. The ignorant amongst us who cannot see that should not make us suffer for their lack of IQ, character or vision. The ignorant should not be running the show. If the Albemarle Supervisors do not unanimously vote down this petition and come out in support of this statue then we all need to get to the voting booth and replace them with people who are intelligent enough to see the obvious. The madness has to stop somewhere. Let it be here.
