The following commentary was submitted to the Mirror by Dr. Paul Strong, MD, of Cape Charles.
I want to express my disappointment that the Northampton Board of Supervisors has continued to lack the will to address the Confederate statue in downtown Eastville. Statues in public places should celebrate people and events which we can take pride in, things that inspire and elevate us.
Rather this statue celebrates a very dark period in our history when the soldiers it honors revolted against the U.S. to defend a way of life that depended on subjugating Black people to slavery.
It is apparent that this statue must be offensive to a large segment of our population in Northampton County; in fact, I find it personally offensive. The statue was erected in the “Jim Crow” era, when over 1000 such statues were simultaneously erected all over the South. They were produced during a time when White Supremacy was being consolidated across this region. To say that such a statue is a celebration of history makes no more sense than to leave up signs identifying “Negro water fountains” or “Colored waiting rooms” as relics we are proud of.
Fortunately, many such statues across the south are now being removed, as they should be. When several similar statues were removed in New Orleans its mayor, Mitch Landrieu, said, ”These statues are not just innocent remembrances of a benign history. These monuments celebrate a fictional, sanitized Confederacy — ignoring the death, ignoring the enslavement, ignoring the terror that it actually stood for.” He went on to say, “It is self-evident that these men did not fight for the United States of America. They fought against it.”
To me it is unacceptable that when the Black citizens of our county need to go to court near there, they should be reminded of how terribly they were treated in our not-too-distant past.
Douglas Luther says
You know I’m tried of all you snowflakes that come to the south and tell us how to live. Why don’t you just stay in the north and leave us alone! Why don’t you fight against your mayors and governors that are ruining your states. Those are the real people that keep the minority people down. Not a statue!
Just because the southern people are more tolerant to your ignorant ways does not mean will let you walk all over us.
And before you call me a bigot and a racist. It has never been in my family’s creed to think someone is better or lesser of a person because of their skin color.
My great grandfather fought in the civil war and was left for dead on the battlefield. Yet survived his wounds and performed the last roll call for Robert E Lee. He had share land with color people to survive, they worked together.
Their is a lot you don’t know about that salute or the people behind it.
And its because of people like you. Who are so filled with hatred, are doom to repeat history.
I cried, bled for my friends. I don’t see color. I see the character of the person. And when my friends, Jackie Vernon, was killed in the line of duty. I cried for her too. The first black female Trooper killed in the line of duty with the Virginia State Police.
So don’t preach to me about your hatred. If life didn’t turn out the way you wanted, well Hell snowflake. Life is tough! Get over it and move on!
Douglas P. Luther, a proud son of a Confederate Veteran!
Paul Plante says
Very well said, Douglas Luther!
And who the **** is walking down a sidewalk on their way to court looking up at some poor dude on a tall statue, instead of looking where they are going?
And why the ****, in a new decade of a new century in a new millennium, are we having to hear about Jim Crow?
Jim Crow happened, just as did ALL history, everywhere.
But Jim Crow was hardly everywhere in America, nor was Jim Crow endorsed by every white person in America, and Jim Crow is OVER!
And we are ******* sick and tired of hearing about it, especially as some white guilt trip we are supposed to be suffering!
As to symbols of oppression, I would have to think that any Black person, as well as poor whites, going past that statue on the way to the courthouse would see the courthouse as a greater symbol of oppression than some dead dude up on a pedestal out in the weather without a pack or overcoat that I can see, where he gets crapped on by pigeons every day.
I know I would, especially if Sonia Sotomayor was the judge at the bench.
And for the record, Jim Crow was the DEMOCRATS, not the American people!
A huge mistake it was allowing the Democrats back into OUR government after the Civil War.
The Romans would have lined the Appian Way with them up on crosses.
We hand them control over our government.
Makes us a pretty strange people in the course of history.
Paul Strong says
Well, first of all, I’m not from the north. I moved here from Montgomery, Alabama, so I know something about the Confederacy. Secondly, I don’t feel any hate for anyone.
Paul Plante says
There was a time when every school kid in America knew about the Confederacy.
You didn’t need to live in Montgomery, Alabama to know about the Confederacy.
It is a part of American history, afterall, which all too many people are way too ignorant about, because it makes them feel bad about themselves, instead of all warm and squishy inside, like this doctor who can’t deal with the fact that history did not happen the way he wanted it to, so now he is throwing temper tantrums about it.
Bob says
I’m from NY and have no problem with that statue
It happened
The civil war
And it was then known as copperhead now Democrats that didn’t want to abolish slavery It took a Republican or Nationalist Lincoln
Which ended his life
It’s also fact that in order to make sure Lincoln didn’t get re elected the copperheads were caught and they confessed to rigging ballots from deceased soldiers
Paul Plante says
The simple solution is to simply pull down just the top statue, leave the pedestal, change the name and put ma statue of Oliver Bennett up there.
How hard is that?
And that will make the Black folks have something to feel good about, seeing Oliver up there above the rest of us where he should be.
Paul Plante says
Not too distant past?
If I recall, the civil war ended May 9, 1865.
Doing some very basic math, 2020-1865, that comes out to 155 years ago, or roughly 8 generations ago.
And maybe the doctor is unaware of the fact, but the dead dude presently occupying the top of that pedestal was on the LOSING SIDE of that contest, so every day into eternity, or until he is replaced by a larger-than-life-size statue of Oliver Bennett, the dead dude has to look down on a world where presently, the Black folks are being afforded more rights than the white folks!
Some poetic justice there for me, anyway.
Maybe the good doctor ought to enroll in one of those courses where they teach you how to reign in your emotions and keep them in check.
Does that statue deny access to the court to Black people?
Sounds like time for a survey on that subject.
And doctor, there would not have been a single Black slave in this country if their Black brethren in Africa were not selling their Black brothers and sisters in Africa to the Arabs, Portuguese and good Queen Anne of England with her Asiento.
So if there are any Queen Anne style homes in Cape Charles, they too should be torn down and demolished as a symbol of oppression of the Black folks today.
Paul Strong says
Well, the signs and behaviours that were degrading to Blacks were present in the South during my childhood, and I remember them. That wasn’t 155 years ago.
Paul Plante says
Well, Paul, guess what – I do, too, so how about that, now will you?
I remember when Washington, D.C. was segregated.
How about you?
Do you remember that, too?
So you think tearing down the statue is going to change any of that history?
If the statue is gone, will people not know how bad you treated the Black folks wherever it was that you were raised up?
Just curious, is all.
Paul L Strong says
Well, of course they will know. But at least it won’t be celebrated with a statue.
Paul Plante says
Celebrated with a statue?
Uh, are you aware that in that struggle, the South, i.e., the Democrats, did not prevail?
So seriously, what is that statue “celebrating,” which word is defined as “acknowledge a happy day or event with a social gathering or enjoyable activity?”
The South literally destroyed itself in that struggle, so what exactly is it that the statue celebrates, beyond the stupidity of the Democrats who started that war by seceding, and then by declaring war on the North?
I look at the statue and I see a dude standing there reflecting on the fact that for eternity, he is destined to stand there, regardless of the weather, to get crapped on by pigeons, because thanks to the Democrats who started the war, his home and family have been destroyed so he has no other place to go.
What that is a celebration of eludes me.
Slide Easy says
All races kept slaves all throughout history.
Most of the American slaveships and American slave-markets were run by Jews. But no one blames modern Jews. Because if anyone today says anything was “run by Jews”, they’re immediately dismissed as a crazy anti-Semite, regardless of whether or not it’s true.
When the Trans-Atlantic slaveships docked at African slave-markets to buy slaves, they bought slaves who were already slaves. It was Arab Muslims and Black Africans themselves who captured members of rival tribes and took them to the coastal slave-markets to sell to the Whites and Jews. White people didn’t go into Africa and kidnap free black people. They barely needed to get off their ships to buy slaves, it was like buying McDonalds at a drive-through. The slaves were already at the slave-market in chains, ready to go.
In the 16th – 18th century, Africans enslaved 1.5 million White Europeans in the Barbary Slave Trade. African Muslims raided up the coastlines of Europe, particularly the British Isles but even as far as Iceland, kidnapping and enslaving White European Christians. The men were galley slaves, and the women were sex slaves. This was more brutal than working on a plantation or as a domestic servant.
Native Americans and Jews owned Black slaves too, but no one seems to assign a collective guilt to modern Native Americans and Jews for their slavery. In fact, Jews were the biggest slave-owners in America per capita.
Whites were the first people to stop slavery in modern times, whereas slavery still continues in Africa to this day. In Mauritania slavery was only made a punishable offense in 2007!
Less than 2% of Whites in America ever owned slaves
Only 5% of the black slaves transported across the Atlantic actually went to the modern U.S. Most in fact went to Latin America to serve Hispanic slave-owners. But we don’t look at modern Hispanics as evil slave-owners.”
Liberals have one color.
White Man With Multiple Functioning Brain Cells says
THIS COMMENT IS FOR EVERYONE IN THIS COMMENT SECTION
Two wrongs don’t make a right, while I agree with some of the points you made (although some of the numbers are rather inflated), a lot of that is irrelevant to the article at hand. You agree that slavery of all kinds is morally wrong, so why would we celebrate it with a statue. Whether it be other races subjugating white people or white people subjugating other races, slavery is morally wrong. Out of all the things you can put on a street, I feel like there are better symbols and people to recognize. Also, I’m going to assume your race, I doubt you’ll be offended. You don’t know what it’s like (and neither do I) to have family members who were slaves, and for that to run deep in your history. And the effects of slavery didn’t simply disappear after the 19th century. As a white man walking down the street, there are certain thoughts and feelings that pop into your head when you see a black man. Prejudices. It’s wrong to not recognize that and to simply say you “don’t see color.” If you don’t see color, you might want to get that checked out with your eye doctor. Also don’t try to assume my political ideology based on this comment, because you’ll probably be wrong. Wake up, if taking a statue down hurts and offends you this much, maybe you are the real snowflake.
Paul Plante says
Well White Man With Multiple Functioning Brain Cells, two or three, anyway, thanks for a great segue.
You don’t like the statue?
Tear the mother****** down then.
Why do you need the permission of any one in here to do so?
Google “Cranes Renting Leasing in Cape Charles, VA,” and you will find you have quite a good selection to choose from.
Which raises an interesting question of exactly who it is that “owns” that statue, given its Inscription which states thusly:
Erected by the Harmanson-West Camp Confederate Veterans, The Daughters of the Confederacy and the citizens of the Eastern Shore of Virginia; to the soldiers of the Confederacy from Northampton and Accomack Counties.
end quotes
That statue was put there, White Man With Multiple Functioning Brain Cells, although not too many it would appear, by the citizens of the Eastern Shore of Virginia in 1913, to celebrate soldiers of the Confederacy from Northampton and Accomack Counties.
Fast forward to today, 107 years later, and here are you and the good doctor saying what those citizens of the Eastern Shore did in 1913 is very wrong today, and so, that wrong can only be remedied by undoing today what they did in 1913.
Are we on the same page here with that?
So, a legal question – if in 1913 the citizens of the Eastern Shore put that statue there, who owns it today?
And why were the citizens of the Eastern Shore wrong in 1913 to put that statue up, because it would be that wrong that would serve as the justification for tearing down the statue.
And the doctor would have made a better argument if he had stuck to actual history as opposed to giving us some mythological and hysterical bull**** about the person on top of that pillar having revolted against the U.S. to defend a way of life that depended on subjugating Black people to slavery.
It is seventh grade history, and it is embarassing that the doctor was ignorant of this, that the Commonwealth of Virginia dis-unioned itself with an Ordinance of Secession.
It did not “revolt” against the U.S.
Rather, it simply restored to itself the political condition it had achieved in 1776, to wit:
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do.
end quotes
Here, we are talking something I learned in grade school.
And then we come to the Articles of Confederation in 1777, where we have as follows:
To all to whom these Presents shall come, we, the undersigned Delegates of the States affixed to our Names send greeting.
Whereas the Delegates of the United States of America in Congress assembled did on the fifteenth day of November in the year of our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred and Seventy seven, and in the Second Year of the Independence of America agree to certain articles of Confederation and perpetual Union between the States of Newhampshire, Massachusetts-bay, Rhodeisland and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia in the Words following, viz. “Articles of Confederation and perpetual Union between the States of Newhampshire, Massachusetts-bay, Rhodeisland and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.
Article I. The Stile of this confederacy shall be, “The United States of America.”
Article II. Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom and independence, and every Power, Jurisdiction and right, which is not by this confederation expressly delegated to the United States, in Congress assembled.
Article III. The said states hereby severally enter into a firm league of friendship with each other, for their common defence, the security of their Liberties, and their mutual and general welfare, binding themselves to assist each other, against all force offered to, or attacks made upon them, or any of them, on account of religion, sovereignty, trade, or any other pretence whatever.
end quotes
When it seceded, Virginia believed that it had a lawful right to do so, and to this date, that legal question has never been answered, because Abe Lincoln chose to contest the question militarily, instead.
Consider that the Army of Northern Virginia was not officially given that name until the fall of 1861, and that was not to defend slavery, that was to defend Virginia from an invasion by the Northern states, which is why the so-called “civil” war is known as the War Between The States, or the North versus the South.
You and the doctor say they were wrong to join the Army of Northern Virginia, so there should be no statue to them today.
But in 1913, the citizens of the Eastern Shore thought differently. because it was they who erected the statue in the first place.
Which takes us to this from the doctor, to wit: It is apparent that this statue must be offensive to a large segment of our population in Northampton County; in fact, I find it personally offensive.
Given that the statue was erected by the citizens of the Eastern Shore, it is hardly apparent that this statue must be offensive to a large segment of our population in Northampton County.
So bless his heart, because he seems nice and well-meaning, but inane and unsupported statements like that make him look ignorant and frankly, a bit stupid.
Paul Plante says
White Man With Multiple Functioning Brain Cells – based on a careful rational analysis of your dialectic above here, you really should change that screen name to White Man With Just A Few Functioning Brain Cells Left.
Let’s start with your opening sentence, which begins as follows:
Two wrongs don’t make a right.
end quotes
Nobody in here to my knowledge ever said contrary, but the difficulty for you arises from the fact that you choose to conflate the Eastville statue with slavery, when the inscription on the statue clearly states as follows:
Erected by the Harmanson-West Camp Confederate Veterans, The Daughters of the Confederacy and the citizens of the Eastern Shore of Virginia; to the soldiers of the Confederacy from Northampton and Accomack Counties.
They died bravely in war, or in peace lived nobly to rehabilitate their country.
end quotes
Do you see any reference whatsoever to slavery there?
If so, could you please point it out, because I am missing it, and it would help the doctor make his case if you were to make that connection between those who died bravely in war, or in peace lived nobly to rehabilitate their country, where “rehabilitate” is taken to mean “restore to former privileges or reputation after a period of critical or official disfavor,” and the institution of slavery, which was long since over by the time that statue was erected in 1913, which is another point where the good doctor has his own two feet stuck in his mouth with his specious and incorrect claim that the citizens of Northampton and Accomack Counties erected that statue in the “Jim Crow” era because they were trying to consolidate White Supremacy across this region, which takes us back to your statement that “(Y)ou agree that slavery of all kinds is morally wrong, so why would we celebrate it with a statue,” which has been previously dealt with because we are not celebrating slavery with that statue – what we are remembering with that statue is not just an innocent remembrance of a benign history, and far from it.
These monuments do not celebrate a fictional, sanitized Confederacy.
These monuments do not ignore the death, or ignore the enslavement, or ignore the terror that the Civil War actually stood for, and how could they, given the devastation in the South as a result of Lincoln’s unconditional war in the South, and they sure as hell do not celebrate it, because what kind of moron would celebrate something which destroyed everything they owned?
Getting back to your dialectic, we next come to this, to wit:
Whether it be other races subjugating white people or white people subjugating other races, slavery is morally wrong.
end quotes
Then why is it told in the Bible in several different places to be a good slave?
And with respect to the Bible, let’s go back to 1836 and “Memoirs of an American lady,
with sketches of manners and scenery in America as they existed previous to the revolution” by Anne MacVicar Grant (1755-1838), where we had as follows on the subject of slavery by someone who actually experienced the institution:
To return: Amidst all this mild and really tender indulgence to the negroes, these colonists had not the smallest scruple of conscience with regard to the right by which they held them in subjection.
Had that been the case, their singular humanity would have been incompatible with continued injustice.
But the truth is, that of law, the generality of those people knew little; and of philosophy, nothing at all.
They sought their code of morality in the Bible, and there, imagined they found this hapless race condemned to perpetual slavery; and thought nothing remained for them but to lighten the chains of their fellow Christians, after having made them such.
end quotes
Walk a mile in somebody else’s shoes before you make a lot of judgments about them is the moral of that story.
And were those more simple people wrong to believe in what the Bible was saying about slavery?
As to your statement, “(O)ut of all the things you can put on a street, I feel like there are better symbols and people to recognize,” how about this – we put up no statues of anybody for any reason, and take down all the ones that are up, and then nobody will have anything out there to make them feel bad about themselves.
And that would include removing these obnoxious and intimidating BLACK LIVES MATTER monuments and banners and murals that are making their way into OUR AMERICAN towns and cities, which again takes us back to this gem of yours from the dialectic as follows:
Also, I’m going to assume your race, I doubt you’ll be offended.
end quotes
My race is human – what race are you?
Are you some kind of non-human?
Getting back to the dialectic:
You don’t know what it’s like (and neither do I) to have family members who were slaves, and for that to run deep in your history.
end quotes
What Black person today has family members who were slaves?
There haven’t been slaves in this country since January 31, 1865 because on December 6, 1865, which is one hundred fifty-five (155) years ago, or roughly eight generations ago, the American people ratified the 13th amendment which abolished slavery in the United States and provided that “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude …. shall exist within the United States.”
So the family members of any Black persons alive today who were slaves in this country are long since dead, and if somebody alive today of any skin color is going around mumbling and grumbling about something they think happened to their great, great, great, great grand daddy 200 years ago, they got some serious psychological or mental issues, plain and simple, which takes us back to the dialectic for more drivel, as follows:
And the effects of slavery didn’t simply disappear after the 19th century.
end quotes
Were you so foolish as to think they would?
Afterall, there were still slaves in the Mother Country of Africa well into the 20th century, because that is what the Black folks do – they make slaves out of each other and sell each other for money, which is how there ended up being slaves here in the first place.
And back to the dialectic we once again go, and here, you sound just like Hillary Clinton:
As a white man walking down the street, there are certain thoughts and feelings that pop into your head when you see a black man.
Prejudices.
end quotes
To which I reply, BULL****!
When you walk down the street, there are certain thoughts and feelings that pop into your head when you see a black man, and you call them prejudice, and because you feel that way, you are then projecting that onto all of us, as if we thought like you do.
But we don’t.
Which again takes us back to the dialectic as follows:
It’s wrong to not recognize that and to simply say you “don’t see color.”
If you don’t see color, you might want to get that checked out with your eye doctor.
end quotes
“Seeing color” or “not seeing color” has absolutely nothing to do with one’s eyes – it has everything to do with one’s psychology – one’s personal make-up.
You see a Black person, and right away, you are only seeing color, and you feel prejudice, and then you make this BULL**** cop-out statement to yourself that, well, everybody else is feeling the same thing, so there is no need for you to indulge yourself in some much needed self-improvement.
But I don’t see color the way you do, because I am not you, and don’t wish to be.
I merely see another human being, regardless of what color they might happen to be, since human beings come in all different shapes and colors.
As to your political ideology based on this comment, I would suspect that you were a Marxist, to be truthful, but I could be wrong.
And it is not the taking down of a statue that “hurts and offends” people – it is the perversion of history to fit a political agenda that people find highly offensive, which is where the good doctor made his fatal mistake in his screed above.
And as to history, let us see what Booker T. Washington, himself a former Black slave, has to say about, and by the way, I was studying the life of Booker T. Washington when I was in the fifth grade, along with George Washington Carver, to wit:
Booker T. Washington Delivers the 1895 Atlanta Compromise Speech
On September 18, 1895, African-American spokesman and leader Booker T. Washington spoke before a predominantly white audience at the Cotton States and International Exposition in Atlanta.
His “Atlanta Compromise” address, as it came to be called, was one of the most important and influential speeches in American history.
**********
Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Board of Directors and Citizens:
One-third of the population of the South is of the Negro race.
No enterprise seeking the material, civil, or moral welfare of this section can disregard this element of our population and reach the highest success.
I but convey to you, Mr. President and Directors, the sentiment of the masses of my race when I say that in no way have the value and manhood of the American Negro been more fittingly and generously recognized than by the managers of this magnificent Exposition at every stage of its progress.
It is a recognition that will do more to cement the friendship of the two races than any occurrence since the dawn of our freedom.
end quotes
That was 125 years ago now.
Have you ever bothered to read that speech before you come into here to lecture those of us who have on our ignorance and unfeeling nature towards the Black folks today?
Before lecturing people about history, might it not be a good idea to know something of it yourself first?
Just a thought, anyway.
Paul Plante says
“We have found one another again as brothers and comrades in arms, enemies no longer, generous friends rather, our battles long past, the quarrel forgotten—except that we shall not forget the splendid valor.”
– President Woodrow Wilson’s July 4 Gettysburg reunion speech for a reunion of Union and Confederate Civil War veterans
Stuart Bell says
You poor, poor, thing. Did you get teased? You poor thing!
Grow a set! Get over it. No one cares!
If you do not like The Shore or it’s features…Go back to Alabama, but do not come here and try to change a thing because of your narrow shoulders and weak emotions.
Paul Plante says
They were produced during a time when White Supremacy was being consolidated BY THE DEMOCRATS across this region.
So why are we tearing down statues, but leaving the main symbol of that oppression, the DEMOCRAT PARTY, the engine of the oppression, intact?
But for the DEMOCRAT PARTY, there would not have been a Civil War, or War of Northern Aggression, so that but for the DEMOCRAT PARTY, there would be no Confederate statue in downtown Eastville to upset this poor doctor, and we should consider that just as DEMOCRAT LBJ gave young Americans no choice but to go to VEET NAM or Canada, so too did the DEMOCRATS who started the Civil War give the common people who ended up having to do their fighting for them no other choice if they didn’t have the money to hire a substitute.
The Confederate Conscription Acts, 1862 to 1864, were a series of measures taken by the Confederate government (the DEMOCRATS) to produce the manpower to fight the American Civil War.
The First Conscription Act, passed by the DEMOCRATS April 26, 1862, made any white male between 18 to 35 years old liable to three years of military service.
On September 27, 1862, the Second extended the age limit to 45 years; the Third, passed February 17, 1864, changed this to 17 to 50 years old, for service of an unlimited period.
So again, why are we tearing down statues while not only leaving the main symbol of the Jim Crow oppression, the DEMOCRAT PARTY, still standing, but glorifying it by giving it political power over us?
Scotiagirl says
Gee, just wondering,, have there ever been people who were NOT black who were enslaved? How about in 2020?, any people out there who are enslaved today? Any children out there working in the sex trade? And how does this happen? Are we responsible? Did the blacks ever enslave anyone? How about the American Indians, did they ever enslave anyone? So many questions, so much to feel guilty about. NOT.
Paul Plante says
Of course there have been.
Grade school history here in America.
But to be politically correct today, we are supposed to pretend that none of that ever happened, and that the only people in the entire history of the world to be enslaved were Black people.
Consider this passage from Chapter VIII, The Formation of the State among Germans, of “Origins of the Family, Private Property, and the State” by Frederick Engels circa 1884:
Christianity is completely innocent of the gradual dying out of ancient slavery; it was itself actively involved in the system for centuries under the Roman Empire, and never interfered later with slave-trading by Christians: not with the Germans in the north, or with the Venetians in the Mediterranean, or with the later trade in Negroes.
end quotes
Plenty of white-skinned people were made slaves long before the Blacks, but again, we are not supposed to talk about that, because it is not politically correct to do so.
We are also not supposed to talk about the white-skinned girls made harem slaves in North Africa back in the days of the Barbary Coast pirates.
Pretend that never happened, along with all the other stuff you are supposed to pretend never happened in order to support the narrative that in the whole of human history, the only people who have ever been slaves are Black skinned people and it was all the fault of white-skinned people, nobody else.
Joe says
I see the good Doctor has fallen for the lies of the left, insinuating that this and 1,000 other statues across the south were erected to intimidate and harass African-Americans. However, there is absolutely no historical evidence or documentation of such a sinister plot. There is a long and storied history of liberals saying that on the internet though, that goes back a good 6-8 years!!
Paul Plante says
The good doctor, perhaps a proctologist, is peddling pure BULL**** with his ridiculous and unfounded and unsupportable statement that “(R)ather this statue celebrates a very dark period in our history when the soldiers it honors revolted against the U.S. to defend a way of life that depended on subjugating Black people to slavery.”
First of all, if anyone knows anything about military bearing, when they look at the soldier on top, or rather, the person, because he no longer is a soldier, what they see is someone standing there, not in a defiant or threatening posture with a weapon at port arms, but rather someone in a position of resignation with the butt of his weapon ON THE GROUND, which means THE WAR IS OVER!
That is the message I take from that statue.
“Forced into a war against my will by the Democrats, I’m done with it and I’m going home!”
As to this BULL**** that the soldiers the statue honors revolted against the U.S., that is ignorant horse**** which goes to show that to be a proctologist in the Commonwealth of Virginia, you can be completely ignorant of basic grade school state history where we have as follows:
Encyclopedia Virginia
Virginia Ordinance of Secession (April 17, 1861)
An Ordinance
To repeal the ratification of the Constitution of the United States of America, by the State of Virginia, and to resume all the rights and powers granted under said Constitution.
The people of Virginia, in their ratification of the Constitution of the United States of America, adopted by them in Convention, on the twenty-fifth day of June in the year of our Lord, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight, having declared that the powers granted under the said Constitution, were derived from the people of the United States, and might be resumed whensoever the same should be perverted to their injury and oppression; and the Federal Government having perverted said powers, not only to the injury of the people of Virginia, but to the oppression of the Southern slaveholding States.
Now, therefore, we the people of Virginia, do declare and ordain, That the ordinance adopted by the people of this State in Convention, on the twenty-fifth day of June, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty eight, whereby the Constitution of the United States of America was ratified; and all acts of the General Assembly of this State ratifying or adopting amendments to said Constitution, are hereby repealed and abrogated; that the Union between the State of Virginia and the other States under the Constitution aforesaid is hereby dissolved, and that the State of Virginia is in the full possession and exercise of all the rights of sovereignty, which belong and appertain to a free and independent State.
And they do further declare,That said Constitution of the United States of America is no longer binding on any of the Citizens of this State.
This ordinance shall take effect and be an act of this day when ratified by a majority of the votes of the people of this State, cast at a poll to be taken thereon, on the fourth Thursday in May next, in pursuance of a Schedule hereafter to be enacted
Done in Convention in the City of Richmond, on the seventeenth day of April, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, and in the eighty-fifth year of the Commonwealth of Virginia.
[signatures of the delegates]
end quotes
So when the doctor gets the statue torn down, will that Virginia Ordinance of Secession go away with it?
Will tearing down the statue negate that history as if it never happened, because this doctor lacks the emotional control to deal with the past in a mature, rational way?
MJM says
I come in here at times time and always tell everyone that I don’t care where they are from or what color they are and that each of our opinions are all worth the same. None has more weight because of age, sex, race or any other group or identity politics or social movement that someone may wish to align themselves with. Totally un-American. To me, it’s a statue. An inanimate object. I have looked at many statues in my life and I do not see this one moving in such a way as to demonstrate to me that it was celebrating anything. Is this soldier dancing ? Is there a dead black man at his feet that he is mocking ? To me this looks like a foot soldier at rest who is freaking tired of carrying his rifle and of fighting. That’s what I see. I believe the word celebrating has been inserted here by a man who believes he sees more moral negativity in a statue than the rest of us; or sees something different from many of us. While I can appreciate his emotion I don’t accept it as a driving force that means this statue should come down. If I see something different in a statue of Martin Luther King than Mr. Strong does, should I be allowed to demand that the MLK statue come down ? I can find imperfections in Dr. King’s life but don’t demand erasing him from our public history. What I see here is a strong hearted battle weary man who probably wishes he were somewhere else.
Paul Plante says
Were I to be walking along down there with my grand daughters, and were one of them to actually look up to see that man on top of that statue (it would be interesting to sit there on a park bench to see if anyone passing by ever looks up), and were she to then ask me why the man is up there, I would answer by saying “that is a homeless person, and he is up there because that is all he has left to him.”
And if I were then to be asked why he was homeless, I would say that it was as consequence of what is called unconditional war – he was on the losing side, fighting for the wrong cause, and divine providence was therefore against him, which was proven in spades when “Stonewall” Jackson died.
If they then asked me why he fought, I would say that in the end, only he could know that answer.
If they asked me why the statue was there, that answer I would find easy – to serve as an eternal reminder of the folly of war for those who haven’t faced a war in their lifetimes and are contemplating getting one going with their neighbors, so another generation can end up like that homeless person on top of that statue looking down for eternity on nothing but ruin and desolation for as far as the eye can see, and where his hearth and home were, there is now nothing at all to prove that they were ever there.
Mark Knopfler has some words in a song about another folly that come to mind here, speaking as a Viet Nam combat veteran, to wit:
We’ve paid in hell since Moscow burned
As Cossacks tear us piece by piece
Our dead are strewn a hundred leagues
Though death would be a sweet release
And our grande arm¨¦e is dressed in rags
A frozen starving beggar band
Like rats we steal each other’s scraps
Fall to fighting hand to hand
Save my soul from evil, Lord
And heal this soldier’s heart
I’ll trust in thee to keep me, Lord
I’m done with Bonaparte
What dreams he made for us to dream
Spanish skies, Egyptian sands
The world was ours, we marched upon
Our little Corporal’s command
And I lost an eye at Austerlitz
The sabra slash yet gives me pain
My one true love awaits me still
The flower of the Aquitaine
Save my soul from evil, Lord
And heal this soldier’s heart
I’ll trust in thee to keep me, Lord
I’m done with Bonaparte
end quotes
Change a few words and for the dude up on the statue out in the weather with no home to go to, they would be quite fitting, except I would imagine that instead of saying “I’m done with Bonaparte,” it would be “I’m done with Democrats.”
After VEET NAM, I am too.
Bob says
Well written
If you remove it
Then no one
Sees anything
Knows nothing
Oh right
That’s what your now suppose to do
James D Metz says
Doctor Strong, thank you for coming to the Eastern Shore to practice medicine. Your medical practice provides a much needed service to the community. Your commentary in The Cape Charles Mirror also provides a service to the community, but not in the way you intended. You were hoping to point out that who a community chooses to honor says a lot about that community, and a lot about who is left out of that community. But that is not what The Cape Charles Mirror is about. The Cape Charles Mirror is a platform where people who are angry can gather to blow off steam. During these times, people need an outlet. I hope you don’t take their comments personally.
Note: You sound angry bro.
Paul Plante says
The “community,” James?
What is it that you are saying the “community” is “honoring,” a word that means “regard with great respect?”
That statue?
Do you know even one person, James, who “honors” that statue?
Do people make pilgrimages from other towns and other counties and other states and other countries to “honor” that statue?
If so, how come in the picture, you don’t see a single person?
And if it is not the statue they are honoring, then what?
Jim Crow?
Being a slave state?
Seceding from the Union?
All of the above?
And my goodness, of course the good doctor should take the comments in here seriously.
He has his opinion to which he is welcome.
He is sensitive, the statue hurts his feelings, and we can understand that.
He doesn’t like history, and again, we can understand that, since so many people in this country are the same way – the fact that history happened in some way they didn’t like offends them and so they want it scrubbed from the record – erased as if it never happened.
If the doctor feels strongly enough about the statue, let him get together the money needed to remove it, or he can do like they do in other places and simply get together a flash mob and tear it down like the Iraqis tearing down a statue of Saddam, and that will finally put an end to this drama, and it will make the doctor feel good about himself, the fact that he was able to erase some of the history of Northampton County that he didn’t like and wanted gone.
It is exactly that simple.
And seriously, James, with your comment about who is left out of that community.
Are Black people not allowed in Northampton County?
Are Black people kept in servitude in Northampton County?
Are Black people are wretched, degraded race in Northampton County only good for the most menial of work?
Is Oliver Bennett left out of that community?
And James, before you choke to death on it, my advice would be to seek some medical help, perhaps from the doctor, to get your foot back out of your mouth, especially because in prior editions of the Cape Charles Mirror, I have seen Black women being honored, which kind of makes you sound like an ignorant A-HOLE with your comment that in Northampton County, Black people are excluded from society.
MJM says
Again, no one person has more of a right to their opinion because of any particular upbringing, profession, background or group affiliation they may proclaim they have. Then you come in here Mr. Metz and try to make a Dr. more important, and his opinion, because he is a Dr. I have news for you Sir. We are all important and all have the same amount of voice in our opinion. You appear to have an elitist attitude towards your opinion and a Drs. opinion and we simply disagree with you. What I find incredibly ridiculous in your opinion is that you support the tearing down of a statue, which is most certainly a violent act, and you are telling the Dr, and the rest of us, that we are the angry ones. I continue to say this soldier is CELEBRATING NOTHING, and I think it’s quite probable that those who wish to violently tear this statue down, are the angry ones.
Paul L Strong says
Thanks, James. Well, at least one or two people are blowing off a lot of steam! I have a pretty thick skin, though. 🙂
Paul Plante says
James D Metz is obviously using the Cape Charles Mirror as a platform where people like him who are angry can gather to blow off steam, which, during these times when people like James need an outlet, I think is healthy from a mental and emotional health perspective.
And talk about blowing off a ton of steam, we have White Man With Multiple Functioning Brain Cells saying @ December 23, 2020 at 1:38 am, as follows:
THIS COMMENT IS FOR EVERYONE IN THIS COMMENT SECTION
Two wrongs don’t make a right, while I agree with some of the points you made (although some of the numbers are rather inflated), a lot of that is irrelevant to the article at hand.
You agree that slavery of all kinds is morally wrong, so why would we celebrate it with a statue.
end quotes
Except nobody in here is celebrating slavery with a statue or anything else, nor is anyone advocating for celebrating slavery with a statue or anything else, so we can see the emotional overload caused by this issue has seriously impaired his or her ability to engage in rational discourse and critical thinking.
See what happens to the minds of those with weaker mental faculties than yourself when you distort history, Dr. Strong?
Slide Easy says
Why do liberals think We The People are ‘blowing off steam’ when we speak the truth? Here is some more Truth for you Weak Paul:
The Color of Crime:
• Black males age 18-35 years of age are only 1.8% of the U.S. population, yet have committed 52% of homicides from 1980-2008. Black males (all ages) are only 6% of the U.S. population, yet commit 46% of all violent crimes, and 50% of the gun homicides. If Blacks were removed from the equation, the U.S. gun homicide rate would be equal to Great Britain’s, who have some of the most restrictive gun control laws in the world.
• The Black homicide rate is 17 per 100,000, a rate over 9x that of the White rate, and comparable to some of those most murderous countries in the world. If the homicide rate for the U.S. were the White-only rate, the homicide rate would drop 84%, making the U.S. rate comparable to European countries.
• According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics 2018 survey of criminal victimization, there were 593,598 interracial violent victimizations (excluding homicide) between Blacks and Whites last year, including White-on-Black and Black-on-White attacks. Blacks committed 537,204 of those interracial felonies, or 90 percent, and Whites committed 56,394 of them, or less than 10 percent.
• Blacks constitute 13% of the U.S. population, but represent 27% of all criminal activity in the U.S.
• According to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting for 2018, of the homicide victims for whom race was known, 53.3% were Black, 43.8% were White and 2.8% were of other races. In cases where the race of the offender was known, 54.9% were Black, 42.4% were White, and 2.7% were of other races.
• Of the nearly 770,000 violent interracial crimes committed every year involving Blacks and Whites, Blacks commit 85 percent and Whites commit 15 percent. This means that a Black is 27 times more likely to attack a White person than vice versa.
• For each one standard deviation increase in proportion of Black population, firearm homicide rate is increased by 82.8%. Therefore, the U.S. has a Black problem, not a gun or violent crime problem. When Blacks commit crimes of violence, they are nearly three times more likely than non-Blacks to use a gun, and more than twice as likely to use a knife.
• 40% of gun crime occurs in just three cities: 596 (10%) – St Louis, MO, 53 (11%) – Detroit, MI, and 1,527 (27%) – Chicago, IL.
• Murder is the leading cause of death for Black men, ages 15 to 34. Their murderers are other Black men 93 percent of the time.
• Black males between 16-35 years of age are only 2.0% of the population, yet commit 72% of the street crime in America.
• The single best indicator of violent crime levels in an area is the percentage of the population that is Black.
• If New York City were all White, the murder rate would drop by 91 percent, the robbery rate by 81 percent, and the shootings rate by 97 percent. In an all-White Chicago, murder would decline 90 percent, rape by 81 percent, and robbery by 90 percent.
• Every year, approximately 6,000 blacks are murdered. This is a number greater than white and Hispanic homicide victims combined, even though blacks are only 12 percent of the national population. Blacks of all ages are killed at six times the rate of whites and Hispanics combined. That black death-by-homicide rate is a function of the black crime rate. The national rate of homicides committed by blacks is eight times that of whites and Hispanics combined. Black males between the ages of 14 and 17 commit homicide at 10 times the rate of white and Hispanic male teens combined.
• Homicide is not the only crime that is vastly racially disproportionate. New York City is representative of other crime spreading across the country. Blacks are 23 percent of New York’s population, but they commit 75 percent of all shootings, 70 percent of all robberies, and 66 percent of all violent crime, according to the victims of, and witnesses to, those crimes. Whites are 33 percent of the New York City’s population, but they commit less than 2 percent of all shootings, 4 percent of all robberies, and 5 percent of all violent crime.
• The United States is third in murders throughout the world, but if you omit just five Black cities (Chicago, Detroit, Washington DC, St Louis, and New Orleans) from the equation, then the United States is fourth from the bottom.
• Black serial killers have comprised over half of documented serial killers since the dawn of the 21st century at 56 percent, making up a total of 40 percent in years dating back to 1900. Blacks constituted 44% of the known serial killers during the 1995-2004 period and 38.2% of all multiple murderers (serial, mass, and spree combined) during 1976-1998 period. During the 2000-2010 decade, 62% of serial killers were Black.
https://www.scribd.com/doc/…
https://www.manhattan-insti…
https://archive.org/details…
6ce3a015b806
https://archive.org/details…
2019 Data Shows 51% of Mass Shooters Were Black, Only 29% Were White:
https://summit.news/2019/08…
Will Galford says
Dr.Strong has NEVER PRACTICED MEDICINE IN CAPE CHARLES
Paul Plante says
From the Historical Monument Data Base:
Confederate Monument – Eastville, VA
By Beverly Pfingsten, April 20, 2008
Confederate Monument – Eastville, VA
Inscription.
Erected by the Harmanson-West Camp Confederate Veterans, The Daughters of the Confederacy and the citizens of the Eastern Shore of Virginia; to the soldiers of the Confederacy from Northampton and Accomack Counties.
They died bravely in war, or in peace lived nobly to rehabilitate their country.
A. D. One thousand nine hundred and thirteen.
Tom Haskins says
It does not say a Damn Thing about slaves….
Earth to Black Folks:
Everything is not about you all the time.
Bob Baker says
Who and why erect monuments to losers?
Paul Plante says
You really should direct that question to the Harmanson-West Camp Confederate Veterans, The Daughters of the Confederacy and the citizens of the Eastern Shore of Virginia who dedicated that monument to the soldiers of the Confederacy from Northampton and Accomack Counties who died bravely in war, or in peace lived nobly to rehabilitate their country.
Paul Plante says
Based on your reasoning above here, Bob Baker, should there be a memorial to Viet Nam veterans in Washington. D.C.?
Paul Plante says
After the Civil War was over, were the residents of the Confederate state American citizens?
Or were they a conquered people without rights not granted to them by their conquerors?
Paul Plante says
Bob, you have asked a very important question in this statue controversy that I have never been able to answer except with this question: who was to stop them from doing so?
Stuart Bell says
If you are offended, then do not look at them. If you need to walk by them, look down at the ground so you weak feeling don’t get hurt, bless your heart.
Paul Plante says
Bob, that is a very important question, and frankly, I am surprised that no one in here as stepped up to the plate to address it, because it is your question that goes to the heart of this matter, at least as I see history unfolding here, and I am further surprised that the date the statue was erected, 1913, forty-eight (48) years after the Civil War, or War Between The States as I knew it, drew no comment, as that was the year of the GREAT RECONCILIATION between the Confederates and the GAR, or Grand Army of the Republic, with a ceremony at Gettysburg, where veterans of both armies were invited and present.
Consider this from “Occupation: Stability Operation Roots in Civil War Reconstruction” in This Week in Army History by Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey A. Calvert, US Army Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute, to wit:
As Reconstruction in the South progressed, other forces came into play.
There were political battles over how much aid to give and for how long and fierce arguments over the terms of reconciliation, and over the proper balance between the desire to punish and the need to rehabilitate.
A large and rapid drawdown of forces hindered the Army’s ability to maintain order, a persistent insurgency developed against the enforcement of federal laws, especially with regard to civil rights, and opportunists from both the North and South spread corruption.
The legacy of those later years of Reconstruction stayed with the South for many decades.
However, the experiences of the Army in the first years of Reconstruction were foundational to its future experiences with military government, reconstruction, and stability operations in general – themes that persist to the present.
end quotes
Have you ever seen pictures of Richmond at the end of the war, Bob?
Looks like Germany after WWII does it not?
So, were all the citizens of Virginia back then when Virginia was a defeated nation under military control “losers?”
And if so, what are the citizens of Virginia today?
As to basic American history, the National Park Service has an on-line learning site, and in the section entitled “Reconciliation at Gettysburg (Teach It!),” we have as follows:
The Battle of Gettysburg, fought in Pennsylvania from July 1-3, 1863, is widely known as a turning point in the American Civil War.
But its significance is not limited to the 1860s.
The way that Americans have remembered the Battle of Gettysburg is also important in U.S. history and current events.
Ever since the Civil War ended, Gettysburg has been the site of memorials, monuments, ceremonies, reenactments and more.
Many of these commemorations address the Civil War through the theme of reconciliation between the U.S. and the Confederacy.
Reconciliation was particularly popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but it has remained a common way to commemorate the bloody conflict.
end quotes
Reconciliation is something I learned about quite early in life, and I am surprised that so may people in here who would otherwise claim to be educated seem so ignorant of it.
How long were the people of the South to remain a defeated people under military rule here in the United States of America?
How would you answer that, Bob?
How long would you have the people of the South remain “losers?”
Anyway, betting back to the National Park Service, that article then continues as follows:
In this lesson, students will learn about the history of Civil War reconciliation and the debates about it through two specific reconciliation-themed remembrances at Gettysburg: the Gregg Cavalry Shaft monument and the 1913 Gettysburg reunion.
United States History Standards for Grades 5-12
Era 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
Standard 2B – The student understands the social experience of the war on the battlefield and homefront.
Standard 3A – The student understands the political controversy over Reconstruction.
Standard 3C – The student understands the successes and failures of Reconstruction in the South, North, and West.
Era 6: The Development of the Industrial United States (1870-1900)
Standard 2B – The student understands “scientific racism”, race relations, and the struggle for equal rights.
Standard 3C – The student understands how Americans grappled with social, economic, and political issues.
Era 7: The Emergence of Modern America (1890-1930)
Standard 3C – The student understands how new cultural movements reflected and changed American society.
end quotes
United States History Standards for Grades 5-12, Bob!
Questions I has to answer when I was young.
So how come so many people today are so ignorant of these things?
Getting back to that history lesson, it continues as follows:
Warm-up Activity
Show students the following picture of the Gregg Cavalry Shaft at Gettysburg National Military Park.
Ask students: Who is this monument honoring?
Does it look like a normal Civil War memorial to you?
(East Face Inscription):
This Shaft
marks the field of the engagement
between the
Union Cavalry
commanded by Brig. Gen. D. McM. Gregg
and the
Confederate Cavalry
Commanded by Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart
July 3d, 1863.
(North Face Inscription):
Union Forces.
2d Brigade 3d Cavalry Division
Brig. Gen. G. A. Custer.
1st Mich. Cavalry, Col. C. H. Town.
5th Mich. Cavalry, Col. R. A. Alger.
6th Mich Cavalry, Col. Geo. Gray.
7th Michigan Cavalry, Col. W. D. Mann.
Union Artillery
Randol’s Light Battery E, 1st U.S. Artillery
Pennington’s Light Battery M, 2nd U.S. Artillery
2d Sec. Light Battery H, 3d Penna.
(South Face Inscription):
Union Forces
1st Brigade, 2d Cavalry Division
Col. J. B. McIntosh.
3d Penna. Cavalry, Lt. Col. E.S. Jones.
1st New Jersey Cavalry, Maj. M.R. Beaumont.
1st Maryland Cavalry, Lt. Col. J.M. Deems
3d Brigade, 2d Cavalry Division.
Col. J. Irvin Gregg.
16th Penna. Cavalry, Lt. Col. J.K. Robinson.
4th Penna. Cavalry, Lt. Col. W.E. Doster.
1st Maine Cavalry, Lt. Col. C. H. Smith.
10th New York Cavalry, Maj. M.H. Avery.
1st Mass Cavalry, Lt. Col. G. S. Curtis
Purnell Troop A, Md, Cavalry
Co., A 1st Ohio.
(West Face Inscription):
Confederate Forces
Cavalry
Hampton’s Brigade, Brig. Gen. Wade Hampton.
Fitz Lee’s Brigade, Brig. Gen. Fitz Hugh Lee.
Jenkins Brigade, Col. M. J. Furguson.
W.H.F. Lee’s Brigade, Col. J.R. Chambiss.
Artillery
McGregor’s Virginia Battery.
Breathed’s Maryland Battery
Griffin’s 2d Maryland Battery.
Tell students that if they thought this looked like a “normal” Civil War monument, they are right.
Many monuments to the American Civil War honor both sides of the conflict, and this monument probably looked normal to them because they have seen ones like it before.
Now tell students that if they did not think this looked like a normal monument, they are also right.
In most wars, the monuments built afterwards do not honor both sides of the conflict.
end quotes
So, Bob, and by the way, like so many other people in here, you seem nice, back to your question – who does build statues to losers?
MJM says
I believe that all the stats and comments being made about the black crime, and the black on black crime in this thread, are being made so that a very important opinion is heard. That is, if the Dr. wants to do something to help the plight ( if he’s whining) or the life ( if he’s simply opining )of the black culture in the U.S, then he would find a way to apply a helpful attitude towards addressing some of the current ongoing serious problems that are so destructive to our culture. I don’t think attacking an inanimate Johnny Reb object does that, but I could be wrong. Frankly I believe the Dr. is misleading himself and the rest of us about this racist culture he complains of from his childhood. If it had been such a horrible negative impact on his life, the emotional trauma probably would have kept him from getting his life on such a positive track, no matter how thick his skin is. I think if a prejudiced town, culture or society wanted to keep the negro man down, then he would not be able to become a Dr. Period. I would think most folks believe that becoming a Dr. is a respectful accomplishment, so I don’t see the creation of his downturned life and terrible degradation. Where is it ? On the other hand, quite a few white guys I know were told right to their face by many large corporations in the 70’s and 80’s that they would never be hired because of U.S. gov. sponsored, supported and enforced discrimination. A little project called “affirmative action”. Myself and all my friends at different times applied for jobs we were qualified for, or over qualified for, and were told we would never be hired because of affirmative action. Minorities and women, the disabled and veterans would all be hired before us because discriminatory laws were written to fight and reverse previous discriminatory practices and the new white guys were just shit out of luck. and there just weren’t that many jobs. So go start your own business pal if you ever want to make a decent living. Did I go tear down any statues ? and I wonder if the Dr. got any help with scholarships that were not allowed to go to white guys and the Doctorate they wished to seek. Did I ever try to keep B.E.T. television from being created ? Do you think B.E.T. got an grants to start their t.v. land that I could have used to start my business ? Did I tear down their communication antenna ? By the way, is there a white entertainment network out there ? Why isn’t that allowed ? I think the Dr. is painting a false picture of his actual agenda, which is to create a legacy of himself in the public eye and in a cheap way. As in, if he can be the one to lead the public charge to tear down the (what he is leading us to learn) horrible segregationist soldier, what a loud and contrary cannon shot he delivers. Therefore, what I believe the Dr. is doing is feeding his ego and trying to make himself look like a leader, be it a not so positive one, if he finds a way to violently tear down this statue. Or talks others into doing it.
Meanwhile an awful lot of people are unsafe walking down an awful lot of MLK Boulevards in this country, and that is a celebration of MLK. We also have the situation where a lot of women in this country don’t like the fact that MLK is celebrated anywhere at all because he was such a philanderer and in doing so they believe he was treating women like they are the ngr of the world. Seeing as women are a very large portion of our society, perhaps they’d more believe the Drs. intentions, and those like him or supporting such ideas, if he/they were to stop some of the celebrations of MLK. Because we have a dream too. Stop all the damn fighting going on in these neighborhoods. End that holiday. Change the streets named after him. Make those streets safe to walk down. Fix the family crisis in these neighborhoods. I would think a Dr. can understand that “first we do no harm” that tearing down a statue creates. Obviously many attitudes here believe that harm could be/would be created with a tear down.. This opinion does not show me to be angry. I can’t be bothered. Just stop feeding me the latest b.s. cultural liberal line please and do something positive or quit whining. I’ve been around the block too many times.
Scotiagirl says
As a woman, an immigrant and a highly educated and well qualified person, Scotiagirl has been denied a job, a promotion and opportunities not only for herself but also for a person closely associated with her. Who would do this in the the USA in the latter part of the 20th century? Your Congress, of course. She wishes she could elaborate but she needs to protect what she has left.
Paul Plante says
I would ask why that would surprise you, and why you think we would be surprised at that.
You should read the Cape Charles Mirror Op-Ed: Should Sonia Sotomayor resign in disgrace? http://www.capecharlesmirror.com/news/op-ed-should-sonia-sotomayor-resign-in-disgrace/#comment-77384 and you will see you are far from being alone.
Justice in the United States of America is a commodity item, afterall, albeit a luxury item for many, and so it goes!
Scotiagirl says
My point exactly and the question was rhetorical in nature.
Paul Plante says
As was mine!
Stuart Bell says
****************HEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!****************
VB1 says
Amen!!!
Jancro says
Colored folks have been conditioned to think that everything is all about them, all the time. They have been sold a bill of goods that just does not exist and political correctness has coddled them to believe it is true.
Stuart Bell says
What happened to the paul strong with his thick skin?….he seems to have gone….crickets.