Friday, February 22, 2013

Confederate Memorial on MLK in Orange, TX Angers NAACP

Slavery was bad... it still is happening and it still is bad.... no one is disputing that. The thing about war though is that it usually is started by the powerful people and then lots of not powerful people get sucked into it and lots of innocent people die on both sides. The Civil war was over slavery between the big guys, but for all the regular people fighting, most of them did not own slaves and had no interest in owning slaved. Many people fought just to fight for their state or against the north or against the south or to right with their brother who joined. Did all the British solders that were fighting against the colonist in the American Revolution hate Americans or were many of them fighting just because they were British and had to fight for their side? Look, it does not mean you agree with slavery just because you are proud to be southern or want to honor your relatives who died in the civil war fighting for the Confederacy. In America we have a Constitutional right to freedom of speech and everyone is entitled to it. So if this guy wants to build a Confederate Memorial on a major intersection so that people driving through the city can see it then so be it. Soldiers have died to protect Freedom of Speech just as soldiers have died to end Slavery.


the story below is from KBMT 12 News:
http://www.12newsnow.com/story/21192179/confederate-memorial-to-be-built-on-mlk

ORANGE - Granvel Block of Orange says he's related to at least 17 Confederate soldiers.
"My great grandfather was a Confederate veteran," he told 12News Wednesday.

He and his organization, called the Sons of Confederate Veterans, want to honor their ancestors by building a Confederate memorial in Orange. It would look similar to the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C., and it would be surrounded by 26 different Confederate flags.
     
"It'll be there for an educational purpose, to show the public the misconception that a lot of people have that the only flag is the battle flag," Block said.

But the memorial will be at the corner of Interstate 10 and MLK, and it's the location that has people talking.

"I think the location could be offensive, it seems to be in bad taste," said Orange resident Philip Cooper.
         
Orange City Council member Theresa Beauchamp finds it offensive, saying, "Everyone has their freedom of speech, but let that (part of history) be gone and forgotten. We do not need to stir up controversy in this town."

Block says his organization never intended to "make a statement."

"It was just a matter of fate that this particular spot became available," he said.

Block says the complaints are unfounded.

"We are a very diverse group, we do not have prejudices," he said.

Several Orange residents and the Orange division of the NAACP plan to voice their concerns to the City Council. But the property is paid for, and Block says the memorial will be built, possibly completed as early as April.

1 comment:

  1. Please get history straight. The civil war was not about slavery as we have been lied to like always. I thought the same thing about the civil war but actually the civil war was about control. Lincoln wanted the control of the southern states because the south had the cotton, other products that was money makers and Lincoln wanted that control. I have read that the northern states(or the gov.) owed the south money on these products and had not paid their bill. The south wanted out of the almost dictator Lincoln and so Lincoln unconstitutionally attacked the southern states with the military. Now Lincoln did not care about the slaves, he had them the north had them and it was the south that wanted to stop the slavery not Lincoln. I thought as a young person in school that Lincoln was a wonderful president, but I am now finding out he was not so wonderful, he was corrupt like most of them. This slave thing needs to be stopped, it is run in the ground. There were slaves back in the old Bible days, Egypt in north Africa had slaves, the African sold their own people as slaves to any body who would buy them, white or black. There were white slaves also but I don't hear all the whining about that. The US was not the first white or black country to buy slaves. As a matter of fact, I was reading the history on Jon Lafitte and he was a pirate here in and around Louisiana and Texas and a few more places, and he would rob Spanish ships and they would have slaves on them to be taken to be sold and Lafitte would also take the slaves and sell them himself. I may have to go back a reread if it was Spanish selling the slaves or French. anyway Lafitte was hired by the French to rob the Spanish ships or the other way around and he not only took their gold and jewels he took the slaves. If people would read the real history of what went on way back then, they would see a different picture. Also it was the Spanish who did not like the cajun and the cajun were living in their country and were shipped to Louisiana because they were not liked. So there was a lot of bad things going on during that time, Looked what happened to the indian, the white man came here from England, killed many many indians took their land, put them on reservations, why because they could, duh. I am part indian I don't like what happened back in the days and I am sorry all the different ethnics of people had to go through what they did, but why keep the stink going? cause you can? duh. Jesus says to look to the future and not look back on the past. People l who lived back in those days had a hard life. all people except the rich. I did not come from rich people and I know how hard my relatives had it. Instead of whining about the past, people need to be praying about the future about where they are going to end up, in heaven or hell. This is so immature for people to keep the past going for hundreds of years, the past is the past, get over it and get feelings off end of fingers. My folks had a hard life, worked like dogs all their life and had hardly nothing as far a material but had a lot of love for family, Jesus and brought us children up in church and we were happy for the most part. I would almost bet all the people who keep bringing up slavery hasn't spent a really hard days labor in their life. They need to experience how people use to have to make a living then maybe just maybe they would appreciate how easy they have it now.

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