David Tatum has gotten his feathers all ruffled over the perceived notion that Confederate Heritage is being wiped of the face of the Earth and he is currently in the process of developing a list of “threatened” Confederate statues/plaques/flags/names, etc. He posted a few on his site the other day so I thought I would look into how “threatened” they really are.
Here is a list of what he has so far with links to the stories and my commentary.
Dixie State College of Utah
It appears that David is not happy that a public institution might not want to associate with things Confederate. Ironically, the school has not always been associated with “Dixie” and has had a total of six names up to this point. So changing the name appears to happen every so often. However, David has not done his homework as usual, because the Board of Trustees voted on January 18, 2013 to rename the institution…wait for it…Dixie State University. Oh, the vote to do so was unanimous
Well, David is O-1
Lets see how David does with the Confederate Monument in Jefferson, Georgia. Apparently it was damanged…must have been a bunch of damn Yankees right? Well not so fast…it appears that the damage occurred while it was being moved in order to ease traffic problems. However the move put it in a more visible and accessible area. Here are some links…
Damn…David is 0-2…more to come later. Maybe in the meantime, David could check his list that second time. Looks like he needs to!
The Texas photograph Dave uses is of the monument to the 8th Texas Cavalry (Terry’s Rangers), on the grounds of the Texas State Capitol. That monument is not threatened, and is unconnected to the dispute over the plaques removed from the Texas Supreme Court Building more than a decade ago. Different monument, different building, different site.
Andy, thanks for the comment. I already alerted David to a number of his mistakes, but he is pushing forward. Remember it Heritage not history.
It’s not a huge deal, but it’s worth getting correct.
That’s cool but the dome in the background , isn’t that the supreme court ?
I looked several places and that’s the only one I could copy !
No David, it is the Capital dome.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:TexasSupremeCourtBuilding.JPG
Plus that statue is to the Texas Terry’s Rangers and it too is not threatened!
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On the other hand, I could easily compile a list of vandalized and damaged Federal monuments from the last few years. Perhaps I need to head over to the Yankee Heritage Preservation Group and go on a rant about the nation is wiping the memory of all those brave boys in blue off the face of the map. Naw… don’t want to work Dave’s street corner.
Craig,
Do you have a list of damaged “Union” monuments? I would be nice to compare and contrast reactions to those damaged or “threatened” monuments. I know some get damaged from time to time at Gettysburg…but oddly there are no flaggings done for those monuments.
Thanks for the comment.
Corey, I don’t keep lists of such. A simple web query nets more than enough examples. The memorials/monuments that have been vandalized which I have written about lately include the Bridgeton NJ memorial, 54th Mass Memorial, and IIRC the Burnside Memorial in RI. The McPherson memorial in DC is frequently “masked” (and is so today). I would draw a point though – these are not “threatened” monuments in the context that someone wants to move or remove. Rather these are monuments that have been vandalized. Two of the four I mention above were damaged by parties expressing political opinions. That’s where my interest drops (and why I don’t keep a list). I’ll leave it to others to decide if vandalism as a political expression is on the rise.