Title: Let's Cancel Another Statue

Original CoS Document (slug): [[https://conventionofstates.com/tx-let-s-cancel-another-statue|tx-let-s-cancel-another-statue]]

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Created: 2021-06-08 20:13:48

Updated: 2022-09-16 00:44:15

Published: 2021-06-09 03:00:00

Converted: 2025-04-14T21:11:38.624384461


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Have you ever heard Kate Smith sing “[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EBXw0-XLoU|God Bless America]]”? It is incredibly powerful. Unfortunately, Kate Smith is considered racist these days and has been “cancelled," and her statue has been removed from the Philadelphia Flyers’ arena in April of 2019. (This was before BLM's ‘George Floyd’ riots.) 

Statues from across the country, 113 to be exact, have been removed, defaced, or decapitated since May 25, 2020, because we have been made to understand they remind us of slavery.\\
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On June 8, 2021, the Supreme Court of Virginia heard the legal arguments concerning the plans of the Virginia governor to remove the 131 year-old statue of General Robert E. Lee. The plaintiffs stated the governor had no right to remove the statue as it was deeded to the state who in turn agreed to “faithfully guard” and “affectionately protect” the 13-ton statue. Two budget bills from last year have been dragged into the argument.\\
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However, arguing about who has a right to remove a statue is only superficial and doesn't address the purpose of having a statue in the first place. We don’t decide to erect a monument because we have a budget bill that passes a committee, or because the state is just dying to “affectionately protect” something. Rather, we raise monuments to great people and ideas in history because of something they did or believed in. Warts and all, we remind ourselves of the complexities and unique triumphs of history. \\
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Kate Smith believed in the United States of America and sang that prayer like she meant every word. Robert E. Lee believed in his home state– he couldn’t take up arms against his beloved Virginia. Now both country and state have decided we can no longer respect the good in America. More importantly, they've decided we must not remember our rich past.\\
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“We cannot stand idle while material from another era gets in the way of who we are today,” Flyers president Paul Homgren said in the team’s statement. 

“Material from another era…” What shall we discard next? Perhaps the Declaration of Independence? “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…” Do they think this is outdated too? Or entirely irrelevant because they've condemned our founders as "racist"? I wonder how many of them even know of George Mason, who refused to sign the Constitution because it didn’t outlaw slavery.\\
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But racism is just a a smoke screen to cover for the main offense. Proponents of this violence actually want to capture our hearts, our minds, our souls, and our patriotism. They know that as long as we know the real history of America, the foundations laid in Plymouth Colony, the pillars in Philadelphia, and the roof in the Northwest Ordinance, they cannot destroy the patriot’s zeal for a great country worth not only dying for, but living for. We live in a country worth the daily struggle for independence of thought and action and the right of self-governance.

In punching back against this wave of hate and destruction, Convention of States is a great place to start. It has no party alignment and focuses on the preservation of everything uniquely American.

“Slavery is uniquely un-American.” –Tim Barton