"This week it's Robert E. Lee, I noticed that Stonewall Jackson is coming down," President Donald Trump said on Tuesday. "I wonder, is it George Washington next week, and is it Thomas Jefferson the week after? You have to ask yourself, where does it stop?"No thinking human can defend slavery, or racism, or the Confederacy, but the current view seems to be distorted, as if we are looking through a prism. I'd be very cautious about tearing down any historical monuments, simply because setting that precedent might lead to unforeseen consequences later on.
The rhetoric is getting just a little over-heated. No good can come to that. It's just a small jump from baseball bats to firearms, and no one wants that sort of thing. We can certainly denounce racism and bigotry without defending intolerance and violence. This is not a binary choice, and to say that both groups who came to blows in Charlottesville are beyond the pale of polite society is not a stretch.
Everyone needs to calm down and take a deep breath.
4 comments:
So, when the Taliban blows up Buddhist monuments in Iraq or Afghanistan, it's a tragedy, but when the American Taliban blows up monuments that THEY don't like, it's okay?
I'd really like to find my way back through the looking glass!
I found it interesting that many of the Whites in Charlottesville were armed but didn't fire any shots - they must have been well disciplined, or smart enough to know that guns wouldn't help their cause.
I've heard a guy who refers to the protesters as 'my people' say that the point is coming when guns will be used and that tempers are growing short.
Oh, and I'm with you in agreeing that it is reasonable to come down on both sides and not blame only the whites for what happened.
When someone spoils for a fight, to me the worst thing you can do is give him a fight (as long as you have other options). If their had been no counterprotesters, I bet the event wouldn't have even made national news.
Perhaps we should remove all the parts of the New Testament written by Paul:
"Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ;" Ephesians 6:9
Paul also returned a runaway slave to his master.
Jesus himself never spoke a word against the practice; perhaps we should remove all the likenesses of Christ from churches?
Post a Comment