Monumental Moronity- the Left’s Assault on American History

Monumental Moronity- the Left’s Assault on American History

In the latest cause du jour, it has now become quite the rage to dismantle any statue paying homage to anyone whose lifetime is not commensurate with contemporary political correctness.

Confederate war memorials? Gone.

Historical figures, especially founding fathers who also happened to own slaves? Gone.

New world explorers who broadened the knowledge base and global footprint of European dynasties? Gone.

Next will be any monument or memorial to those who laid down their lives in all of the wars this country has fought…just wait and see.

In fact, any, ANY statue that honors anyone who is not sacrosanct in the eyes of liberal orthodoxy and leftist dogma is now under siege by malcontented radicals who will never find satisfaction with anything American, or that which promotes the virtues of western civilization.

And that is the point.

Tear down the monuments to our nation’s past today, and then tomorrow, tear up the nation’s founding documents which define who we are and how we are to be governed. Call this the express lane to national suicide, here in the United States.

Growing up in Richmond, Virginia we recall that one of the few things which genuinely set Richmond apart from other cities- namely, Monument Avenue. Often compared to the Avenue des Champs-Élysées in Paris, Richmond’s Monument Avenue was widely recognized as one of the most beautiful boulevards in the western hemisphere. Lined with stately oak trees on each side and also on the malls that separated east- and westbound lanes, Monument Avenue courses past the roundabouts which honor heroic figures of a bygone Virginia- Generals J.E.B. Stuart and Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson whose equestrian statues face north, signifying that these two generals did not return home. Most famously, General Robert E. Lee’s equestrian statue faces south, signifying his return home following the war. Additional statues honoring Confederate President Jefferson Davis and Admiral Matthew Fontaine Maury, the “Pathfinder of the Seas,” whose own cartography of Atlantic sea lanes still stands the test of times, to this very day. Also located on one of the avenue’s traffic malls is a canon, facing west, marking the perimeter of the city’s inner defenses. So beautiful and well-planned in the decades following America’s Civil War, Monument Avenue was also lined with stately homes belonging to the upper crust of Richmond society, in an age of carriages and other horse-drawn conveyances. As the decades passed by and asphalt began to cover many of its cobblestones, it was thought to make Monument Avenue more inclusive, so a statue honoring Richmond native Arthur Ashe was dedicated in 1996…the key word being “inclusive.”

Yet there is nothing “inclusive” about current efforts, on the part of liberal elites, to tear down the five “Confederate” monuments on Monument Avenue. Doing so would destroy the entire fabric of Monument Avenue and thus render asunder the teaching moments that once taught area schoolchildren of Richmond’s past, warts and all.

Then again, why would we want to educate our schoolchildren about their country’s history when we’d sooner indoctrinate them on the platitudes of political correctness and the shortcomings of those who came before us?

Several blocks east of Monument Avenue’s eastern terminus there is the equestrian statue of George Washington on the grounds of Virginia’s State Capitol. At its base are statues of Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, Andrew Lewis, Chief Justice John Marshall, George Mason and Thomas Nelson, Jr. All of these men, including Washington, had pivotal roles in the founding of the United States, and it can be reasonably argued that there would be no United States of America, save for the contributions these seven men made in the years before, during and after the American Revolutionary War.

Yet because most of these men were slave owners, is Virginia’s Washington Monument, as it is officially known, next on the list to come down? Well, Virginia’s Capitol, designed by slave-owning Thomas Jefferson, once served as the Capitol of the Confederacy, so maybe they should consider tearing that down, too…

While we are at it, perhaps the time has come to target Washington D.C.’s Washington Monument and the Jefferson Memorial…

To the north, Baltimore removed its own Confederate Monuments, including a statue honoring Confederate Generals Lee and Jackson, in the middle of the night (just like Baltimore’s beloved Colts who were similarly “removed” in the middle of the night by their alcoholic owner). The city’s Lee-Jackson statue was dedicated in 1948 by Baltimore Mayor Thomas D’Alesandro, Jr. Ironically enough, it is his daughter, House Minority Leader and former Speaker of the House, Nancy D’Alesandro Pelosi, who is now leading the call to remove Confederate statues from Statuary Hall in our nation’s Capitol.

If some future generation of elitist intellectuals determine that certain elements of Martin Luther King, Jr’s life are determined to be reprehensible, will it be okay with today’s liberal elites to tear down his memorials, as well?

Perhaps that is a question that should be asked of Minority Leader Pelosi, Virginia’s Governor Terry McAuliffe (also, a friend of the Clintons’) and all of those who seek to tear down the reminders of our collective history. In so doing, they seek to erase the past from our own national consciousness. Then, we will be free to repeat the mistakes of the past and usher in an all new American civil war, one ignited by the divisions these liberals are so set upon fomenting…

…in a word, moronity.

 

-Drew Nickell, 25 August 2017

© 2017 by Drew Nickell, all rights reserved.

author of “Bending Your Ear- a Collection of Essays on the Issues of Our Times”

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