“…a Black Caucus member said in answer to a question from the author that if you promoted slavery, which she defined as having anything to do with it at all at any time in our history, you should not have anything honoring you, including the father of our country, George Washington.”
Saturday, May 20, was Armed forces Day in America. It is supposed to be a day when we Americans celebrate the dedication, commitment, honor, and sacrifice of all those who have fought for the rights, privileges, and benefits bestowed upon our great nation.
Sadly, this May 20th in Louisiana was merely the day after a third American veteran’s monument was removed in New Orleans. The push to remove a statue of Robert E. Lee came from a despotic and un-democratic government run by the latest Landrieu family dynasty tyrant to hold power in our state. Landrieu has managed to severely divide our state by removing monuments to veterans of the Civil War that are state and national icons, not to mention large parts of the fabric of history, culture, and art that attract tourists to Louisiana, and New Orleans in particular.
In my more than three decades of military service, I only saw historically significant monuments destroyed by one type of people—extremists such as ISIS and the Taliban. With such a bold and ignorant move, Landrieu has effectively created his own ISIS.
Amid all the passionate and emotional rhetoric, as well as protests, surrounding the removal in the state’s largest city, the state drafted a new bill. Enter Louisiana House Bill 71, which seeks to offer a vote to the people in any municipality attempting to remove military monuments from any war, including the Civil War. We thought the New Orleans attack on American history and its culture was extreme, but the speeches that occurred on the State House floor on Monday, May 15 took the cultural extremism practiced by New Orleans to new heights!
The House Democrat Black Caucus brought shame and dishonor on itself and frankly embarrassed our state by their attacks on those of us who asked for HB 71, support it, or testified for it. These legislators smeared everyone who supports and asked for the bill as racist white supremacists in a shocking and disgusting two hours of extremism from the power of their public pulpit.
At one point, a Black Caucus member said in answer to a question from the author that if you promoted slavery, which she defined as having anything to do with it at all at any time in our history, you should not have anything honoring you, including the father of our country, George Washington.
A propaganda talking point by the tyrants has been that they only wanted to take down the four statues that have been removed in New Orleans, but this statement reveals the truth—these citizens hate all of us and our ancestors even today, here in the 21st century. Even those of us who have long and documented records of honorable military service that proves we should not be slandered and smeared simply because we desire to protect military veteran monuments with a vote of the people.
For a second time, one poor woman who testified in the committee was attacked by a representative for an obvious poor choice of words. Those who know the woman who has been attacked by public officials was only guilty of stating she just wished all of us could “grow up and get over it.” These might have been poor word choices, but they are not a reason to slander her as a white supremacist. After all, don’t we all want our country to finally get past the stain of slavery? Of course we do, but this woman was shown no quarter and was shamelessly attacked. An official said this bill (seeking to protect veteran monuments) “raised the ugly face of racism” by highlighting emails and text messages from white supremacists. I will not deny that there are tiny segments of racists in our society.
The extremism doesn’t stop there. Another legislator said that “God hates the shedding of innocent blood,” and this bill seeks to “honor men that shed innocent blood” and compared these innocents she referred to as analogous to aborted babies. She also stated that the “purpose of their entire military careers was to shed innocent blood.” This extreme statement can apply to all veterans and wars, as all of us who have faced combat serving our country know that we are responsible for taking innocent lives and that it is unavoidable.
These slanderers seek to paint honorable American military veterans as war criminals and stain their reputations even though they were serving their country, whether they agreed with their country’s policies or not. Veterans don’t make policy, they implement it on behalf of their civilian leaders, and in the context of the times in this country’s first 140 years, our nation’s failure to remove the blight of slavery led these men’s country to leave the union. These men thought of their states as their country more than the United States is to most today.
One of the most ridiculous assertions was that those of us who advocate for this bill want to cause division and strife. The irony is not lost on us that the tyrannical government in New Orleans and bullying legislators in Baton Rouge are the root cause of any division and strife, as this bill probably wouldn’t even exist had they not taken these dictatorial steps to impose their will on society.
But the absolute worst speech was from the legislator in the Black Caucus that I respect the most when, referring to the recent Mother’s Day holiday, he said the irony is that we just honored our mothers and “many of your ancestors ripped away mothers from their children and then raped them.” Applying the guilt of our ancestors to us, he smeared us as supporters of rapists and evil men as if these veterans, our ancestors, and we ourselves were in fact all guilty of these heinous crimes.
It is ludicrous to apply the sins of the past on any group in a general way, and these men and women know that more than anyone else in our society. It’s also sad and disgusting that neither the local nor national media has covered these extremist statements and revealed them for what they really are to the public. I for one will stand firm in my desire to protect all military veteran monuments and give the people a vote on the matter. The question is, will Louisiana honor all its veterans’ sacrifices on Memorial Day and Veterans Day, or will we ignore the ones who fought and died in wars we didn’t agree with? If I were in the state senate here in Louisiana, those monuments in New Orleans would still be in place.
See a link to the above mentioned statement here.
