Continuing to Erase History
Statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee removed from Richmond, Virginia...A statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee was removed from its pedestal in Virginia's capital city Wednesday morning. The 21-foot-tall statue on Monument Avenue in Richmond was one of the largest remaining Confederate monuments in the U.S. — and has long drawn protests as a symbol of racial injustice.
Virginia is set to remove Richmond’s Lee statue on Wednesday... A towering statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee in Richmond, Virginia, will be taken down on Wednesday as a symbol of racial injustice, more than 130 years after it was erected in tribute to the South’s Civil War leader.
Trump Tried to Protect the Statues and Establish a National Garden of American Heroes
Executive Order on Protecting American Monuments, Memorials, and Statues and Combating Recent Criminal Violence... The first duty of government is to ensure domestic tranquility and defend the life, property, and rights of its citizens. Over the last 5 weeks, there has been a sustained assault on the life and property of civilians, law enforcement officers, government property, and revered American monuments such as the Lincoln Memorial.
EO 13934: Building and Rebuilding Monuments to American Heroes...America owes its present greatness to its past sacrifices. Because the past is always at risk of being forgotten, monuments will always be needed to honor those who came before. Since the time of our founding, Americans have raised monuments to our greatest citizens. In 1784, the legislature of Virginia commissioned the earliest statue of George Washington, a “monument of affection and gratitude” to a man who “unit[ed] to the endowment[s] of the Hero the virtues of the Patriot” and gave to the world “an Immortal Example of true Glory.” I Res. H. Del. (June 24, 1784). In our public parks and plazas, we have erected statues of great Americans who, through acts of wisdom and daring, built and preserved for us a republic of ordered liberty.
These statues are silent teachers in solid form of stone and metal. They preserve the memory of our American story and stir in us a spirit of responsibility for the chapters yet unwritten. These works of art call forth gratitude for the accomplishments and sacrifices of our exceptional fellow citizens who, despite their flaws, placed their virtues, their talents, and their lives in the service of our Nation. These monuments express our noblest ideals: respect for our ancestors, love of freedom, and striving for a more perfect union. They are works of beauty, created as enduring tributes. In preserving them, we show reverence for our past, we dignify our present, and we inspire those who are to come. To build a monument is to ratify our shared national project.
To destroy a monument is to desecrate our common inheritance. In recent weeks, in the midst of protests across America, many monuments have been vandalized or destroyed. Some local governments have responded by taking their monuments down. Among others, monuments to Christopher Columbus, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Francis Scott Key, Ulysses S. Grant, leaders of the abolitionist movement, the first all-volunteer African-American regiment of the Union Army in the Civil War, and American soldiers killed in the First and Second World Wars have been vandalized, destroyed, or removed....
Sec. 3. National Garden of American Heroes. (a) It shall be the policy of the United States to establish a statuary park named the National Garden of American Heroes (National Garden).
But Biden Cancelled EO 13934
Biden Cancels Trump’s Order To Honor Those ‘Who Have Contributed Positively To America Throughout Our History’...The Christian Post (CP) reported that Biden revoked Trump's Executive Order 13934... The said executive order, entitled "Building and Rebuilding Monuments for American Heroes," was signed by Trump on July 3, 2020 in an effort to create a National Garden of Heroes that will "depict historically significant Americans," particularly those "who have contributed positively to America throughout our history."
Biden revokes controversial Trump orders on monuments, immigration... President Joe Biden on Friday revoked a series of controversial executive orders issued by the Trump administration, striking down his predecessor's decisions in areas ranging from monument protection to immigration restrictions.