Some very fine people are likely to be upset by Charlottesville City Council’s unanimous decision to remove two confederate statues in public parks that ignited a “Unite The Right” rally nearly four years ago.
The public will be given a 30-day period to brainstorm what will replace statues of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson. The city is requesting proposals “for any museum, historical society, government or military battlefield interested in acquiring the Statues, or either of them, for relocation and placement.”
Activists said they wanted the removal completed before the four year anniversary of the rally and riot.
Community leader Don Gathers expressed relief.
“It was the manifestation of many, many years of work by a vast number of extraordinary people in the community. The next step now is the actual removal. The process needs to be smooth, seamless and expeditious,” Gathers said, adding that the statues shouldn’t be moved be moved to another city. “No other locality should ever have to endure the evilness that they represent. They should be destroyed — melted down. Followed by, a ritualistic cleaning of the area they’ve dominated for so long.”
A white supremacist killed counterprotester Heather Heyer and injured 19 others on August 12, 2017, by plowing through a crowd as right-wing groups gathered to protest the city’s proposal to remove Robert E. Lee’s statue from Lee Park.
Trump infamously tried to rebrand the protesters as very fine people who simply wanted to keep Confederate statues in place. They were not.