Democrats mark a monument to unity for destruction

The idea of a military base “Naming Commission” to wipe all references of the Confederacy from the U.S. military was initially proposed by Elizabeth Warren (D) during the George Floyd riots and approved by Congress in 2020.  Although it did not mention the 109-year-old Civil War Reconciliation monument at Arlington National Cemetery, that monument is now included on the hit list. 

Although this woke legislation happened on Trump’s watch, don’t blame him.  Fox News reported that “Congress created the commission in 2020 after lawmakers overrode a veto by President Trump, who opposed renaming bases that honor Confederate leaders.”  Obviously, it took a bipartisan (virtue-signaling) vote in both houses to override a presidential veto. 

The Naming Commission’s mission is well underway.  Fort Bragg in N.C. was recently renamed Fort Liberty.  That was where I was first assigned to get troop experience as a newly minted combat engineer 2LT in 1968.  It will always remain Fort Bragg to me and many thousands of other vets who spent time there.  Some other new names are even less inspiring.  For example, Fort Lee in Va. is now Fort Gregg-Adams. 

There has been scant mention of this directive in the legacy media and little pushback observed regarding the renaming and removal of other small reminders of Confederate history.  However, the pending removal of the Reconciliation Monument in the Arlington National Cemetery is a concerning casualty of the military’s new and Orwellian woke cancel culture. 

The panel’s Naming Commission Final Report, issued September 19, 2022, includes the information specific to the statue in part III on pages 15 and 16:

The statue atop of the monument should be removed. 

All bronze elements on the monument should be deconstructed, and removed, preferably leaving the granite base and foundation in place to minimize risk of inadvertent disturbance of graves.

The work should be planned and coordinated with the Commission of Fine Arts and the Historical Review Commission to determine the best way to proceed with removal of the monument.

The Department of Army should consider the most cost-effective method of removal and disposal of the monument’s elements in their planning.

Why should we care? 

First: The monument is in our nation’s most sacred burial ground.  And whatever happened to the promises that funerary monuments would not be disturbed?  This monument was conceived and built not to honor the Confederacy, but rather to promote the healing of old wounds from the Civil War and help restore national unity. 

Some forgotten history on how the “Reconciliation” statue came to be was found in the Charleston Athenaeum Press, a site dedicated to correcting woke misrepresentations of Southern history:

Remember, the Confederate Memorial was the idea of Union veteran and President of the United States, William McKinley. It was enthusiastically approved by Congress. Another president, William Howard Taft, spoke at the laying of the cornerstone. A third president, Woodrow Wilson, spoke at the dedication ceremony June 4, 1914 as did Union and Confederate veterans. …

The Confederate Memorial was designed and constructed by internationally renowned Jewish sculptor Moses Ezekiel, himself a Confederate veteran, a graduate of VMI. He is buried with three other Southerners at the base of his beautiful monument thus making it their headstone but also the grave markers for 462 other Confederate graves arranged in concentric circles around the monument and an intergral [sic] part of the memorial as was intended by Congress, three presidents, and veterans North and South.

Second: The monument has both historical and artistic merit.  There is an album of detailed Army Photographs of the monument that emphasize its artistic beauty.  Furthermore, British artist, critic, poet, and historian Alexander Adams submitted the following testimony to the Advisory Committee on Arlington National Cemetery “Open Session,” 7–8 November, 2022:

Having viewed a large amount of public statuary from the beaux-arts era (1850–1914), it is my professional opinion that the Memorial is a serious, iconographically complex and technically accomplished piece of art. In my view, it is a handsome sculpture and an entirely appropriate funerary monument. I consider it an internationally significant piece of art of its type and era. Any nation should be proud to host such a magnanimous and dignified monument.

Third: Its destruction would be a symbol of a nation in decline.  Jim Webb (D), a Marine infantry officer in Vietnam, Navy secretary (1987–88), U.S. senator from Virginia (2007–13), six-year member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and distinguished fellow at Notre Dame’s International Security Center, explains why in the conclusion of his insightful Wall Street Journal editorial of August 19, 2023: 

If it [the Reconciliation statue] is taken apart and removed, leaving behind a concrete slab, the burial marker of its creator, and a small circle of graves, it would send a different message, one of a deteriorating society willing to erase the generosity of its past, in favor of bitterness and misunderstanding conjured up by those who do not understand the history they seem bent on destroying.

What if anything can be done to prevent the statue’s destruction?

With the Biden administration still controlling the DoD and Senate, stopping its destruction seems hopeless to us veterans and ordinary concerned citizens.  However, the Army National Military Cemeteries (ANMC) is providing the public with opportunities to submit comments.  To comment, use this link to the designated ANMC Form.  Comments submitted by 11:59 PM (E.T.) on September 2, 2023, will be considered in preparation of the Draft EIS and the Identification of Historic Properties under Section 106.  There are provisions explained at the same link for submitting additional public comments later. 

You can continue to be a spectator or take action now.  Doing nothing in this misguided woke world will only help assure that the Reconciliation Memorial will be gone by the end of the year.

Image via Pxhere.