[Publisher’s Note, by Gene Kizer, Jr. – The DoD must respond today, Tuesday, December 5, 2023 to a judge’s order that they explain why they think they are above the National Historic Preservation Act and the National Environmental Policy Act and can go ahead with their demolition of the world class Confederate Reconciliation Memorial, the greatest achievement of internationally acclaimed Jewish sculptor Sir Moses Ezekiel, a VMI Confederate soldier.
Two days later, by Thursday, December 7, Pearl Harbor Day, Defend Arlington will respond.
After that, the fate of the Confederate Memorial is in a DC judge’s hands though we will certainly take additional action and fight to the bitter end.
This litigation is expensive and we desperately need to put money in our War Chest so PLEASE GIVE GENEROUSLY AND IMMEDIATELY.
I have set up a fundraising page by Gene Kizer, Jr. – Charleston Athenaeum Press, under Defend Arlington’s main fundraising website. It is safe, easy to use, and acknowledgements and receipts are emailed to your instantly. Here and below are links to it:
https://www.memberplanet.com/campaign/sshfl/defendarlington/GeneKizerJr
Last Friday, December 2, I submitted a 15 page Comment on DoD’s Environmental Assessment (EA), which, apparently, they are doing in order to skirt the strict requirements of the National Environment Policy Act for a formal Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).
The kind of historical examination required by an EIS and required by the National Historic Preservation Act’s Section 106 Process, with public input, can take four years but DoD is doing it in four weeks.
DoD, in its rush to implement Elizabeth Warren’s history-destroying legislation and demolish the Confederate Memorial by January 1, 2024, is blind to the unintended consequences that will be forced on Arlington National Cemetery and our country.
The demolition of Ezekiel’s magnificent Reconciliation Memorial surrounded by 500 Confederate graves in concentric circles out from the monument, will utterly, completely and absolutely destroy Arlington National Cemetery as our nation’s most sacred burial ground.
What would be special about Arlington National Cemetery if it is forced to become a destroyer of historic monuments and desecrator of American soldier graves?
Warren’s legislation gave us the Woke political naming commission with its extremely biased vice chair, Ty Seidule, who has written extensively about his hatred of the Confederate Memorial and who appears to regret that our nation came back together after the War Between the States.
Seidule’s naming commission issued a historically fraudulent report that left out the primary history of the Confederate Memorial, which he knew well to be the reconciliation of our country.
The report falsely stated that the Confederate Memorial is in the naming commission’s remit.
It is not.
A monument to the reconciliation of the United States of America after our bloodiest war does not commemorate the Confederacy. It commemorates the goodness and genius of the United States of America back then, certainly not today.
As I say in my Comment, the destruction of the Confederate Memorial will also dishonor and devalue the OCEANS of Southern blood gladly spilled by descendants of Confederate veterans in all of our nation’s wars since traditionally 44% of our military has been recruited in the South.
It is no wonder the Army can’t recruit following extremist Woke legislation from liars like fake Indian Elizabeth Warren, who could have been stopped by Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe when Republicans had control of the Senate in 2020. The despicable Inhofe promised President Trump he would stop Warren’s hate legislation but Inhofe is as big a liar as Warren. Our nation deserves so much better.
Just click HERE and look at the Army’s 28 stunning photographs of the Confederate Memorial with its beauty, incredible detail and symbolism.
It is the most historic and magnificent memorial in Arlington National Cemetery and it’s slated for destruction on what will become one of the darkest days in American history, December 18, 2023, when Arlington National Cemetery ceases being our nation’s most sacred burial ground.
You expect grave desecration from Hamas and ISIS but not from the United States Department of Defense and Arlington National Cemetery, itself.
Please go to my Donation Page and donate to Defend Arlington for our crack legal team because it is the last hope for the Confederate Memorial.
At my Donation Page you can also create your own Defend Arlington sub-donation-page with your name or organization’s name, and donations will go straight to Defend Arlington. Just click on “Support this campaign” and follow the instructions. You might have to wrestle with it but you can get it.
Also scroll down, past my Comment, to donate in other ways and for other valuable information.
Thank You.]
COMMENT on the
ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT (EA) OF THE REMOVAL OF THE CONFEDERATE MEMORIAL FROM ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY, ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA dated November, 2023.
By:
Gene Kizer, Jr.
This EA contains so many subjective statements that are NOT TRUE, at some point an investigation should occur and hold people accountable.
Alleged violations of rules and regulations required by the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) and National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) in this entire process are legion and have required multiple law suits.
The Advisory Committee on Arlington National Cemetery should all resign in protest as should Ms. Karen Durham-Aguilera, Elecutive Director, Office of Army Cemeteries, because the action proposed in this EA will utterly, completely and absolutely DESTROY ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY as our nation’s most sacred shrine.
The action proposed in this EA reverses Arlington National Cemetery’s “Our Mission” which states:
Arlington National Cemetery represents the American people for past, present and future generations by laying to rest those few who have served our nation with dignity and honor, while immersing guests in the cemetery’s living history.
The FONSI in which the Army issues a Finding Of No Significant Impact from the destruction of the Confederate Memorial is obviously false and created to check boxes in a process that should take years if done properly and by the law but instead will be done in four weeks.
This EA destroys a significant part of the organic history, past and present, of the American nation that was built by veterans, North and South, and presidents for a century, but most importantly, it dishonors and devalues the oceans of Southern blood spilled by the descendants of Confederate soldiers in all of our wars since traditionally, 44% of our military has been recruited in the South. No wonder the Army can’t recruit.
The message is, if your politics is not Woke enough, your life and family do not matter. That is the same message the Nazis sent to the Jews in the 1930s.
The Confederate Memorial is surrounded by the graves of 500 or so Confederate soldiers and family who, by laws passed in FY1901, are American soldiers deserving the same honor and respect as all others.
Destroying the Confederate Memorial, as the Army has already stated will occur if the 109 year old bronze elements are removed, will leave those 500 graves in concentric circles around a mangled shaft, out in the open with no context, like freaks to spit on and laugh at, which will make the United States Army and Arlington National Cemetery desecrators of American soldier graves.
But back to the statements that are not true in this EA.
The first is one that ANC and the Army are hiding behind, which is that Congress in the FY2021 NDAA is making them remove the Confederate Memorial.
That is NOT TRUE.
Congress in the FY2021 NDAA does not mention the Confederate Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery.
Here’s one of many of ANC’s not true statements:
As required by Congress and implemented by the Secretary of Defense, Army National Military Cemeteries (ANMC) is required to remove the Confederate Memorial in Section 16 of Arlington National Cemetery (ANC). (https://anmc-confederatememorialpubliccomments.com/)
The FY2021 NDAA authorized a “Commission on the Naming of Items of the DoD that Commemorate the Confederate States of America” and that so-called naming commission has resulted in multiple law suits because of its allegedly illegal processes and unquestionably politicized and INCORRECT HISTORICAL ASSESSMENTS such as concerning the Ranger Memorial at former Fort Benning, Georgia.
Retired United States Army Brigadier General Joseph S. Stringham, Chairman of the National Ranger Memorial Foundation, confirms that the naming commission’s report is “without verification” and mistakes have been made that have required legal action that is ongoing. BG Stringham wrote to his Rangers last spring:
Implementation of dramatic/radical edicts and shifts in policy at issue here are frequently accompanied by inaccuracies, (stupid) interpretations, injustices to survivors and a strong political slant offensive to substantial sectors of society. The deceased named in this directive, the Mosby family and the Bowen family in particular, are victims of woefully targeted legislation enacted by the Pelosi, WOKE, 117th Congress. Interpretations of this legislation have received the slavish obedience by both civilian and military management at the national level as passed down, apparently without verification, to our installations. For example, and wrongly identified with the Confederacy, Gen Morgan was a BG in the Continental Army under Gen Washington and the hero of the Battle of Cowpens against the British. Gen. Morgan had passed away 57 years before the start of the Civil War. The injustice to the name of John S Mosby and his descendants is extraordinary and thoughtless. Notwithstanding his extraordinary combat record, Ambassador Mosby, a staunch anti-slavery activist, was appointed by President Grant as US Ambassador to China later in his distinguished service to our nation. (Emphasis added)
The same is true, but it is worse, with the 109 year old Confederate Reconciliation Memorial. The Confederate Memorial is NOT in the naming commission’s remit as they falsely claimed.
Secretary Austin made his decision on the Confederate Memorial based on the naming commission’s HISTORICALLY FRAUDULENT REPORT that left out the Memorial’s primary history, which is the reconciliation of the United States of America after our bloodiest war.
The reconciliation theme is irrefutable, thoroughly documented, and beyond the shadow of a doubt. Presidents of the United States for over 100 years sent annual memorial wreaths to the Confederate Memorial including Barack Obama.
Obama was not commemorating the Confederacy. He, along with the others, was commemorating peace, patriotism and the reconciliation of the United States of America, which is a GREAT thing for a nation after a bloody war that occurred largely because of different regional interests and interpretations of our Constitution.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who is buried at Arlington National Cemetery, had a picture of Gen. Robert E. Lee on his White House wall the entire time he was president. He explained the causes of the War Between the States and importance of Gen. Lee’s efforts to bind up the nation’s wounds, in simpler, clearer terms than anyone I have ever read.
Eisenhower said the issues of States Rights versus supreme federal power, the right of secession, etc. were not settled before the War Between the States and good men and women, North and South, had legitimate disagreement. Eisenhower’s letter in its entirety is below.
If Secretary Austin had been given a truthful report from the naming commission and told about the reconciliation theme and symbolism of the Confederate Memorial, it is NOT CONCEIVABLE that he would have ordered it demolished.
The naming commission’s report on the Confederate Memorial was driven by politics and personal prejudice, not history, and certainly not historical truth.
Naming commission vice chair Ty Seidule hates the Confederate Memorial. He wrote in his book, Robert E. Lee and Me, on page 162:
Of the thousands of monuments around the country to the Confederacy, the one in Arlington National Cemetery angers me the most. Every year, the commander in chief sends a wreath, ensuring the Confederate monument receives all the prestige of the U.S. government. That’s why it riles me so much. . . .
Seidule then admits that the Confederate Memorial stands for the reconciliation of the United States of America, but he, himself, regrets that reconciliation:
I know both political parties and white citizens in the North and South brought the country back together after the tremendous bloodletting and destruction of the Civil War. THE POSTS NAMED FOR CONFEDERATE OFFICERS DURING WORLD WAR I ALSO SERVED TO KNIT WHITE AMERICA BACK TOGETHER as it fought a common foe. And it worked, but we must recognize that RECONCILIATION came at a steep and horrifying cost. African Americans paid the price with lynching, Jim Crow segregation, and the loss of the franchise. The price for white RECONCILIATION remains far too high. (Emphasis added.)
Truth is, none of the Army base names should have been changed, because, as Seidule himself admits, they were named after Confederates as part of the reconciliation of the United States of America, not to commemorate the Confederacy, and they were part of the organic history of our country.
Selective use of history is incredibly dishonest.
For example, Northerners, New Englanders especially, were virtually 100% of America’s slave traders. They carried on an illegal slave trade the entire antebellum period.
Even during the War Between the States, in 1862, Boston and New York were the slave trading capitals of the world according to W. E. B. Du Bois in his famous book, The Suppression of the African Slave-Trade to the United States of America 1638-1870.
Jim Crow started in the North, not the South. The South was an integrated society out of necessity.
Six slave states fought for the North the entire war including Missouri, Kentucky and Maryland, represented on the Confederate Memorial. They are on the Confederate memorial because substantial numbers of the citizens of Missouri and Kentucky fought for the South and an organized group in each state issued an Ordinance of Secession though the state did not actually secede.
All you have to do is read the words of Maryland’s state song until just recently, Maryland, My Maryland, to know how they felt.
All three had full representation in the Confederate Congress, which is why they are on the Confederate Memorial as they should be.
The other Northern slave states were Delaware, West Virginia and New Jersey. West Virginia came into the Union as a slave state just weeks AFTER the Emancipation Proclamation took effect.
None of the Northern slave states were required by the Lincoln administration to abolish slavery. In fact, some of the Northern slave states had slavery well after the war, even after slavery had ended in the South. Those Northern slave states were the last to end slavery and it took the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution in December, 1865, to do it.
No monument to Union soldiers states that they fought to end slavery. They all talk about their honored dead, patriotism or preservation of the Union.
The massive amount of the history of the Confederate Reconciliation Memorial left out of the naming commission’s report is documented below.
I have been part of the fight to keep the Confederate Memorial right where it is, where it should stay forever, for a year-and-a-half or more. I have attended every meeting of the Advisory Committee on Arlington National Cemetery and subcommittees, and all meetings related to the Section 106 Process of the NHPA, NEPA, and I have made detailed comments at all of them by Zoom testimony and/or written statements. I wrote a white paper entitled “The Reconciliation of North and South After the War Between the States as Symbolized by the Confederate Memorial ‘New South’ in Arlington National Cemetery” on the reconciliation theme that is part of Defend Arlington’s book: Arguments Against Naming Commission Recommendation, RE: Arlington National Cemetery Confederate Memorial.
The numerous politicized or historically incorrect statements in this EA, and the false FONSI cause me, as an invited Consulting Party, to distrust all the statistical analysis of this EA as stated in Section 1.4 Public Participation, Tribal Consultation, and Agency Coordination.
The public has not been able to see the actual figures and comments and how the Army analyzed them, and based on the Army trying to do in four weeks what usually takes four years, makes me know that politics is behind this EA, not adherence to historical truth or our historical preservation laws.
Every meeting at which the public could testify by Zoom, 100% of those testifying strongly supported the Confederate Memorial. Even the Advisory Committee of Arlington National Cemetery has expressed distain about destroying the Confederate Memorial and has asked why they could not just interpret it themselves as they did before the creation of the naming commission, and as they do with all other monuments in Arlington National Cemetery.
The Confederate Memorial with its reconciliation theme and 500 graves is arguable the most significant, as well as magnificent memorial in Arlington National Cemetery, and one of the most magnificent on earth.
The unhistorical, politicized interpretations of history throughout this EA can easily be proven false through scholarly argument but let me provide one glaring example.
In Section 1.2.2.2 Description of the Memorial, the EA states:
. . . As the naming commission concluded, the monument offers a highly inaccurate representation of slavery. The commission stated: ‘Two of these figures are portrayed as African American: an enslaved woman depicted as a “Mammy,” holding the infant child of a white officer, and an enslaved man following his owner to war.’
Labeling those African Americans on the Confederate Memorial as slaves is false. There is no statement from the sculptor that they are slaves. Tens of thousands of blacks fought for the South, both free and slave. Historian Samuel W. Mitcham estimates 80,000 to 100,000 blacks fought for the South.
Free blacks enthusiastically signed up and their stories are throughout the primary record. They were men too who bled and died as they saw fit for their homes in the South when the South was invaded. They marched alongside white Confederate soldiers and were not segregated in the back of the line as were black Union soldiers, who, by the way, were all commanded by white officers (USCT).
See the first hand observation of Union officer Lewis H. Steiner, M.D., inspector of the Sanitary Commission as stated in his diary in September, 1862 when he observed thousands of black Confederates, armed and dressed the same as the whites and all marching together “mixed up with all the rebel horde” as he stated.
One of the most esteemed scholars of Union and Confederate monuments, Ernest E. Blevins, in his white paper “Headstone of the Confederate States: Moses Ezekiel’s Arlington Confederate Monument, Symbolism, Meaning, National Register Eligibility, and Potential Adverse Effects to Alternations or Removal” states that there is NO EVIDENCE for the naming commission’s claim that the blacks on the Confederate Memorial are slaves:
The naming commission’s statement includes interpretative errors – fallacies, in fact. The first is in citing that black figures are slaves. There is no documentation on the enslaved or free status of the two images; therefore, one must not assume their condition. Of the two, the soldier could be free or slave; in either case, he could be volunteering or going by choice to war. Research by archivist and historian Teresa Roane of Chesterfield, Virginia, regularly demonstrates in her research which is rooted in primary records, frequently posting copies of the records on Facebook of many free blacks who joined the Confederate cause in a variety of significant positions . . .
What is most concerning about this EA is stated in 1.0 Purpose and Need, 1.1 Introduction:
. . . Removal of the Memorial is required by law, and the Army does not have authority to take environmental factors into consideration in determining whether to take the proposed action.
That is stated in numerous places and makes this EA and entire process dishonest and a politicized sham.
The biggest sham, though, is the naming commission’s claim that a monument that commemorates the reconciliation of the United States of America as participated in by presidents for 100 years including Barack Obama, who sent his annual memorial wreath, actually commemorates the Confederacy therefore is in its remit.
That is false. The Confederate Memorial is not in the naming commission’s remit and their report on the Confederate Memorial, which leaves out its primary history, is a complete historical fraud.
ANC’s “Section 106 Process Submission: Revised Area of Potential Effect (APE) and Assessment of Adverse Effects (November 2, 2023)” contains, among other things:
Confederate Memorial: Assessment of Potential Effect
Arlington National Cemetery Historic District: Assessment of Potential Effect
In both, ANC admits serious “adverse effects on the characteristics that qualify the Confederate Memorial [and ANC Historic District] for individual listing in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP)”.
ANC also states that the 109 year old Confederate Memorial if removed would likely not survive deconstruction and the “materials, design, and workmanship (which are qualifying characteristics of the historic property)” would be damaged or destroyed.
The Confederate Memorial is one of the most magnificent memorials on earth. It was the great Jewish artist and VMI Confederate soldier, Moses Ezekiel’s, finest creation.
Art critic Michael Robert Patterson states that “. . . no sculptor, as far as known, has ever, in any one memorial told as much history as has Ezekiel in his monument at Arlington; and every human figure in it, as well as every symbol, is and of itself, a work of art.”
Destroying that would be an egregious crime against history and art, especially based on a historically fraudulent report from the political naming commission.
Just look at the Army’s own pictures of the Confederate Memorial. It is clearly stunning in its artistry as well as symbolism. Destroying it would put Arlington National Cemetery in the same class with other monument destroyers such as Hamas, ISIS and the Taliban, and it may well be illegal.
Over 70% of the American public do NOT want our historic monuments destroyed.
As stated, if ANC removes the Confederate Memorial it will leave 500 Southern graves in concentric circles around a mangled shaft, out in the open with no context, like freaks to spit on and laugh at.
Those 500 Confederate graves are American soldier graves, by law, which BG Stringham pointed out in his May 23, 2023 letter to then-US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, and Hon. Mike Rogers, Chairman, House Armed Services Committee.
Stringham writes:
. . . we draw your attention to President McKinley’s address at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, in which he urged reconciliation based on the outstanding service of Southerners during the U.S. war with Spain. Congress’s response to this plea was magnanimous and resulted in the Appropriation Act of FY 1901, in which Confederate soldiers were recognized as fellow countrymen deserving of the respect and honor accorded to U.S. soldiers. These laws are still in full force and effect to this day . . . .
It would not only be 500 Confederate graves that Arlington National Cemetery would be desecrating, it would be an enormous dishonor to the descendants of Confederate soldiers who have been the proudest and most patriotic Americans and have spilled OCEANS of Southern blood enthusiastically for our great nation.
Audie Murphy, Alvin York and millions of others who are and were proud of their Confederate ancestors – and indeed drew great inspiration and bravery from them – would be dishonored by the United States Army and Arlington National Cemetery itself.
Does Arlington National Cemetery really want to insult our military by sending the message that only some American veterans are worthy of respect while others can go to the devil as the Woke political winds blow? Will our Vietnam veterans be dishonored one day or our dead from the wars on terror?
If the Confederate Memorial is demolished, then 500 graves in Section 16 and all their descendants and fellow Southerners, some 80 million Americans, will be dishonored for all time. Once Humpty Dumpty is shattered into a million pieces, you can not put him back together again.
Eighteen states from where those 500 burials come will also be dishonored.
The reconciliation that makes our country so unique and exceptional will be repealed by hateful Woke politics, and all the presidents who created the Confederate Memorial, and the veterans North and South who celebrated it, will be dishonored.
ANC’s logo states that it is “Our Most Sacred Shrine” but ANC ITSELF will become a desecrator of soldier graves that President McKinley said were all tributes to American valor.
Arlington National Cemetery would no longer be worthy of respect but would be just another place that filthy Woke politics can degrade.
ANC should always be above politics, a place for all of us to cherish and be proud of and not one that promotes hatred and ignorance of history among our own people.
Again, all ANC Advisory Committee members and Executive Director Karen Durham-Aguilera should resign before allowing the desecration of Arlington National Cemetery due to the potentially illegal processes and the false statement by the naming commission that the Confederate Memorial, symbolizing the reconciliation of the United States of America, is in its remit.
Here is some of the massive amount of history the naming commission left out of its report:
The Confederate Memorial was the idea of Union soldier and later president, William McKinley, after enthusiastic Southern participation in the Spanish-American War and it was approved by Congress.
McKinley said:
. . . every soldier’s grave made during our unfortunate civil war is a tribute to American valor . . . And the time has now come . . . when in the spirit of fraternity we should share in the care of the graves of the Confederate soldiers . . . The cordial feeling now happily existing between the North and South prompts this gracious act and if it needed further justification it is found in the gallant loyalty to the Union and the flag so conspicuously shown in this year just passed by the sons and grandsons of those heroic dead.
President William Howard Taft spoke and was warmly received at the UDC ceremony the evening the cornerstone was laid.
President Woodrow Wilson gave the dedication speech June 4, 1914.
President Theodore Roosevelt sent the first memorial wreath that started an annual tradition observed by all presidents including Barack Obama.
President Warren G. Harding sent a message of condolence that was read at the funeral of the Confederate Memorial’s sculptor, Moses Ezekiel. Harding’s words are beautiful, inspiring, and definitive. Here is some of his message from The Evening Star, Washington, D.C., Wednesday, March 30, 1921:
Ezekiel will be remembered,’ the President wrote, ‘as one who knew how to translate the glories of his own time and people into that language of art which is common to all peoples and all times. He served his state in the conflict that threatened to divide and that at last served to unify our country. He accepted the verdict of the civil war’s arbitrament with all the fine generosity that has been characteristic of both the north and south; and the splendid product of his art, that here testifies to our nation’s reunion, will stand from this day forth as guardian over his ashes.
Every line and curve and expression carries the plea for a truly united nation that may be equal to the burdens of these exacting times. It speaks to us the ardent wish, the untiring purpose, to help make our people one people, secure in independence, dedicated to freedom, and ever ready to lend the hand of confident strength in aid of the oppressed and needy. Its long-drawn shadows of earliest morn and latest evening will always fall on sacred soil. The genius that produced, the love that gave, the devotion that will cherish it will forever be numbered among our ennobling possessions.
[H]e wrought them into works which compelled the recognition of the chief art schools and won the honors of nations and cities that boasted of being the homes of sculpture’s best traditions. Crowned with these honors, he turned his thoughts to his own country, and as the final and finest product of his talents gave to us the monument that from this day will mark his resting place. It is the memorial of reunited America the testimony to the tradition of indissoluble union, the shrine to which we are gathered today, and will gather through the years to come, those who would dedicate themselves to the ideal of unselfish, enlightened, upstanding Americanism as a force for our country’s maintenance and all humanity’s betterment.
Clearly, the Confederate Memorial represents RECONCILIATION, peace, love and patriotism, all things the naming commission left out of its historically fraudulent, unverified report.
Veterans North and South, with love and enthusiasm for our reunited nation, supported the Confederate Memorial and spoke at its ceremonies.
Esteemed British art critic and historian, Alexander Adams, writes in his “Testimony regarding Arlington National Cemetery Confederate Memorial, submitted to the Advisory Committee on Arlington National Cemetery Open Session,” 7-8 November, 2022:
Having viewed a large amount of public statuary from the beaux-arts era (1850-1914), it is my professional opinion that the Memorial is a serious, iconographically complex and technically accomplished piece of art. In my view, it is a handsome sculpture and an entirely appropriate funerary monument. I consider it an internationally significant piece of art of its type and era. Any nation should be proud to host such a magnanimous and dignified monument.
The inscription “And they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks” provides a Biblical guidance to turning from war to peace. This is echoed by the personification of the South, which holds the wreath of glory and touches the plough of peaceful prosperity. The frieze below depicts the contributions of those who supported the war effort.
The Area of Potential Effect (APE) is all of Arlington National Cemetery and the entire United States of America, indeed, the world.
Millions of good Americans will lose respect for Arlington National Cemetery if it commits the horrendous act of destroying a world class historic monument on what is supposed to be sacred ground.
The United States House of Representatives passed an amendment that is included in its version of the FY2024 NDAA prohibiting spending any money for the removal of the Confederate Memorial in ANC. That bill is now in the Senate and may well end up law.
ANC cannot disregard the will of Congress today after the smoke of the George Floyd riots has disappeared and minds are much more clear.
With our country indirectly involved in two wars, we do not need to desecrate our most sacred military cemetery with Woke iconoclasm that disgusts 70% of the country.
Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1st Supreme Allied Commander, Europe, in World War II, later president of the United States for eight years, had a picture of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee on his wall in the White House his entire time there.
Like President John F. Kennedy, Eisenhower had great respect for Gen. Lee and his men and cause and he appreciated Lee’s efforts to bind up the nation’s wounds after our bloodiest war.
On August 1, 1960, a New York dentist, Dr. Leon W. Scott, wrote an angry letter to President Eisenhower excoriating him for having that picture of Lee in his White House office.
Scott wrote:
I do not understand how any American can include Robert E. Lee as a person to be emulated, and why the President of the United States of America should do so is certainly beyond me. / The most outstanding thing that Robert E. Lee did, was to devote his best efforts to the destruction of the United States Government, and I am sure that you do not say that a person who tries to destroy our Government is worthy of being held as one of our heroes.
President Eisenhower wrote back on August 9th:
Dear Dr. Scott:
Respecting your August 1 inquiry calling attention to my often expressed admiration for General Robert E. Lee, I would say, first, that we need to understand that at the time of the War between the States the issue of secession had remained unresolved for more than 70 years. Men of probity, character, public standing and unquestioned loyalty, both North and South, had disagreed over this issue as a matter of principle from the day our Constitution was adopted.
General Robert E. Lee was, in my estimation, one of the supremely gifted men produced by our Nation. He believed unswervingly in the Constitutional validity of his cause which until 1865 was still an arguable question in America; he was a poised and inspiring leader, true to the high trust reposed in him by millions of his fellow citizens; he was thoughtful yet demanding of his officers and men, forbearing with captured enemies but ingenious, unrelenting and personally courageous in battle, and never disheartened by a reverse or obstacle. Through all his many trials, he remained selfless almost to a fault and unfailing in his faith in God. Taken altogether, he was noble as a leader and as a man, and unsullied as I read the pages of our history.
From deep conviction, I simply say this: a nation of men of Lee’s caliber would be unconquerable in spirit and soul. Indeed, to the degree that present-day American youth will strive to emulate his rare qualities, including his devotion to this land as revealed in his painstaking efforts to help heal the Nation’s wounds once the bitter struggle was over, will be strengthened and our love of freedom sustained.
Such are the reasons that I proudly display the picture of this great American on my office wall.
Sincerely,
Dwight D. Eisenhower
The good people at Arlington National Cemetery and in the United States Army need to get through to Secretary Austin that the naming commission erred when they said the Confederate Memorial is in their remit.
It is NOT.
Removing it will divide our country FOREVER. It will dishonor millions of Southerners who have served and are serving, and devalue the oceans of Southern blood spent in defense of our country. It will desecrate 500 graves in Arlington National Cemetery in Section 16 and make the United States Army and Arlington National Cemetery, itself, desecrators of American soldier graves.
The Confederate Memorial must stay right where it is forever. As President Harding said in his message read at Moses Ezekiel’s funeral:
Gene Kizer, Jr.Every line and curve and expression carries the plea for a truly united nation that may be equal to the burdens of these exacting times. It speaks to us the ardent wish, the untiring purpose, to help make our people one people, secure in independence, dedicated to freedom, and ever ready to lend the hand of confident strength in aid of the oppressed and needy. Its long-drawn shadows of earliest morn and latest evening will always fall on sacred soil. . . .
(Slightly revised December 4, 2023)
Links to Important Resources
Defend Arlington Fundraising Site where you can help save Moses Ezekiel’s MAGNIFICENT 109 year old Confederate Reconciliation Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery by Buying Outstanding Merchandise featuring BEAUTIFUL images from the monument. Art critics have said that every image on the monument is a work of art by itself. There are all kind of things like shirts, hats, hoodies, clocks, art prints, tote bags, note cards, stickers, ipad skins and cases, cell phone cases and skins, wall art, coasters, mugs, pins, throw pillows, water bottles, journals, magnets, etc.! ALL PROCEEDS GO TO THE DEFENSE FUND! Go spend some time on this site! You will love it!
Defend Arlington’s recording of the 35 or so speakers on behalf of the Confederate Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery that took place Wednesday, March 15, 2023 in a virtual meeting of the Remember and Explore Subcommittee of Arlington National Cemetery.
View testimony which starts at 1:38:59.
Here is a link to Defend Arlington’s donation page that states:
CHIP IN FOR THE ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY MEMORIAL LITIGATION DEFENSE FUND. You can also pay with Zelle. Send to
Please Donate Now — THANK YOU!
Click Here to Donate AND Share on Facebook, et al.
Defend Arlington update with link to February 28, 2023 Tucker Carlson interview with Christopher Bedford on the Confederate Reconciliation Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery.
Defend Arlington update, Tucker Carlson segment on YouTube
Hot off the press! Here is a link to the new 385 page PDF from Defend Arlington that flips pages as you read. It contains all the great scholarly white papers gathered up by Defend Arlington to make sure that Woke ignorance DIES at Arlington National Cemetery.
Defend Arlington’s 385 Page Book of White Papers
Here is a link to an informative nine minute video, “The Arlington Confederate Monument,” produced by the Abbeville Institute.
The Arlington Confederate Monument
Here is a link to the outstanding scholarly PDF white papers written for Defend Arlington. You can download them all with one click. Please share them far and wide, especially the letter from Defend Arlington’s attorney, Karen C. Bennett, to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.
PDF White Papers from Defend Arlington
Here is link to an excellent video refuting point by point a historically false Prager University video by Ty Seidule, who is naming commission vice chair. This one is produced by Bode Lang and entitled “The Civil War Was Not for Slavery.”
Click Here for Bode Lang’s excellent video
Here is a link to an excellent video of a Georgia lady calling out Elizabeth Warren and her Massachusetts hypocrisy.
Click Here for Georgia Lady Teaching Elizabeth Warren a Lesson
Here are important Southern Legal Resource Center links. SLRC mailing address is: Southern Legal Resource Center, 90 Church St., Black Mountain, NC 28711-3365.
Click Here to donate to the Southern Legal Resource Center
Click Here to follow on Facebook
Click Here to go to their website
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