Legislators protect statues over people
A little over two years ago, The Chronicle did a story about the Confederate statue at the corner of Liberty and West Fourth streets. It sits beside the former Forsyth County Courthouse, where it’s been since it was erected in 1905.
It’s in the news again.
A news report said that on Sunday evening after a nearby vigil, passers-by saw a sign at the statue, apparently asking that lawmakers remove the monument in solidarity with anti-hate protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia. The protest unrest in that city between white supremacists and those who oppose them on Saturday ended with one woman – an anti-hate protester – and two state troopers in a helicopter dead.
What the sign-maker didn’t know was that the statue does not belong to any government.
The local United Daughters of the Confederacy James B. Gordon Chapter, who erected the statue more than a century ago, still owned it in July 2015.
Neither the county nor the new owners of the nearby property have control over the statue, Deputy County Manager Damon Sanders-Pratt said in 2015.
But, thanks to our forward-thinking legislators, a state law that would bar local governments from removing any Confederate monuments and symbols was made law in 2015. So, even if our local government thought it could and wanted to remove it, it could not unless the General Assembly passes a bill allowing it to be moved.
So, there you have it.
N.C. GOP lawmakers will protect historical monuments but not people who need help with their health. Where is the expansion law for Medicaid, the state health insurance program for the poor and disabled? Democrat Gov. Roy Cooper would sign the bill; he has been pushing for one since campaigning for governor.
Where is the concern about living human beings over inanimate monuments that are symbols of an anti-government movement, not to mention slavery?
GOP legislators protect statues over people.
Activists in Durham took matters into their own hands on Monday evening by using a rope to pull down a bronze Confederate soldier outside a Durham courthouse, The Associated Press reports. The Durham protest was in response to the white nationalist rally held in Charlottesville over the weekend.
Well, if you can’t move the statues, you can move the legislators. Vote the non-progressives out of office.
