Resolution to Protect our Nation’s Monuments
WHEREAS the Southwest Florida Civil War Roundtable (SWFLCWRT) is devoted to the appreciation, preservation and deeper understanding of our nation’s history and, in particular, its Civil War Heritage; and
WHEREAS the SWFLCWRT recognizes the importance of multiple interpretations of the past and the need for all civic-minded people to engage in discussions about the multifaceted and important role key individuals have made to the development of our nation; and
WHEREAS the SWFLCWRT recognizes that statues and historical monuments generally represent the totality of one person’s historical importance and should not be judged as representing any single act or any combination of lesser acts of that person that could be deemed offensive by today’s standards; and
WHEREAS the SWFLCWRT is aware that individual artists’ representations of historical statues represent an artist’s opinion of the symbolic ideal of the subject and that these works of art were and still may be revered by both the persons that authorized them and the citizens to whom they were dedicated; and
WHEREAS the SWFLCWRT recognizes that ALL individuals are guilty of actions which might be deemed offensive by contemporary standards, and if contemporary standards of offensive behavior were applied to today’s public figures we should cease having any future historical monuments; and
WHEREAS the SWFLCWRT understands that these monuments offer an important educational opportunity for our schools and citizens to come to grips with the content of our nation’s past; and
WHEREAS current attempts by large numbers of vandals who seek to deconstruct the history of our nation and whose methods outside of the legal process have recently resulted in the desecration, defacing, or outright destruction of many hundreds of historical monuments and symbols throughout the nation, to wit as of 6/25/2020:
the desecration of the Lincoln and World War II Memorials in our nation’s capitol as well as other symbolic group monuments such as that dedicated to the 54th Mass. Infantry Regiment (Boston), the likeness of Norse explorers (Philadelphia), Texas Rangers (Dallas), western pioneers (University of Oregon), gold rush prospectors (Cal State-Long Beach), Social Progress (U of WI, Madison), etc.
the desecration of the individual likenesses of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Francis Scott Key, Ulysses S. Grant, Christopher Columbus, William McKinley, David Farragut, Mohandas Gandhi, Miguel de Cervantes, Frank Rizzo, John Sutter, Phillip Schuyler, William Clark, Albert Pike, John Sutter, George Rogers Clark, Caesar Rodney, Thaddeaus Kosciuszko, Stand Waite, Junipero Serra, Mathias Baldwin, Hans Christian Heg, Woodrow Wilson, as well many others and the hundreds of memorials dedicated to individuals associated with the Confederate States of America or to their dead soldiers, and
the vandalism committed against the Robert E. Lee memorial in Lee County by three out-of-county men and the dropping of criminal charges against the main culprit by the States Attorney’s Office in Fort Myers, despite the man’s full confession to the crime as well as other evidence. This is especially tragic in light of the fact that Robert Lee was admired as a great American by both northerners as well as southerners for his work in reuniting the divisive nation after four years of bitter hostility—a time not unlike the present. These events have led the City of Fort Myers to vote in favor of removing the memorial from the public square in the County that bears his name, which seems illogical.
WHEREAS the SWFLCWRT realizes the importance of non-violent historical debate to help arrive at a deeper understanding of the past; and
WHEREAS the SWFLCWRT is committed to the proper placement, location, and modification of controversial statues through decisions made by duly elected legislative bodies who hold public hearings for such considerations; and
WHEREAS the SWFLCWRT recognizes that in many municipalities publicly elected officials have been reluctant to enforce local laws calling for the arrest of individuals who seek to deliberately deface or destroy both private and public property in the form of historic monuments; and
WHEREAS the SWFLCWRT is aware that capricious mobs bent on the destruction of selected monuments representing a nation’s historic past is a tactic often used by totalitarian societies to impose their will upon the populace and are the means to enforce a rigid conformity to only one interpretation of the past; and
WHEREAS the SWFLCWRT is convinced that this current non-legal destructive trend will result in no person or group being able to feel free or secure in their safety in the future and will only serve to encourage future lawlessness;
WE THEREFORE call upon all civic-minded citizens to
1) urge that educational and political leaders use the current controversy surrounding such monuments to provide enhanced educational opportunities to better understand our past and to more deeply exam the totality of the contributions of particular historical figures to the development of our nation,
2) condemn the lawless destruction of historical monuments throughout our nation,
3) call for decisions on the appropriateness of such controversial monuments to be decided through lawfully elected legislative bodies and not through the arbitrary decisions of elected executives such as city mayors or state governors,
4) ask that current laws be fully enforced against vandals who seek to destroy public property and that they are duly prosecuted under the law for their criminal behavior.
Respectfully submitted this February 9, 2021
