Kentucky Judge Halts Removal Of Confederate Memorial


The push to remove the Louisville Confederate memorial should remind Americans what is at stake if they allow such monuments to be taken down. By erasing our past, we will not only lose our history, but our future as well, since we will not be able to learn from our country’s mistakes and triumphs:

“Asked if his administration followed proper procedure to move the memorial, the mayor said there is no such process on the books. The mayor said it was ‘kind of a unique situation’ and reiterated the plan is to relocate the monument, not destroy it.

‘We wanted to make sure that the state, the university and city were lined up on it and decided to make the decision,’ Fischer said. ‘We feel good about that.’

The granite monument, completed in 1895, was built with funding from the Kentucky Women’s Confederate Monument Association for $12,000, according to the suit.

‘We need to understand our history in order to recognize and counteract its lingering effect,’ Martina Kunnecke, president of Neighborhood Planning & Preservation, said Sunday. ‘Erasing it only serves to sanitize what was and what is.’ Opponents have said the mayor’s announcement is tantamount to erasing history and ignores how Confederate soldiers played a role in the city’s history.

The restraining order comes on the same day Fischer announced the formation of a historic preservation task force that the mayor’s office says will seek ways to honor Louisville’s heritage. Keith Runyon, co-chair of the mayor’s panel, said Monday that unlike historic markers that remind residents about the horrors of the past, the Confederate memorial is one that honors those who wanted to maintain slavery.

‘The old South, and the antebellum shtick that Louisville has sometimes attached to is not constructive,’ he said.

‘This is a dynamic monument, a ‘we’ll rise again’ sort of thing,’ he added. ‘And just over time some things become outdated, and I think this one is.’

Kunnecke’s group has asked the Kentucky Heritage Council if removing the memorial falls under its purview. The group also wants to know what, if any, process is required to move or remove a historic monument.

‘If you bleach away the complexity of our common past, it is difficult to perceive how complicated and horrible things were and remain,’ Kunnecke said. ‘We never develop the discernment to recognize the inconsistencies or injustices that persist right under our very noses.’”

Source: Courier Journal



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