Monument should not be linked
to politics
THERE ARE some things that should be
off-limits to politics, like historic monuments honoring local war dead.
One of those caught up in a political
dispute is Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana’s 105-year-old courthouse monument which
honors war dead – who by chance wore gray uniforms in this nation’s most tragic
war.
The South’s Defenders Memorial Monument
is being caught up in a nationwide rampage of destruction by radical left-wing
mobs intimidated local officials, and in some states, the governors.
This is the third time spiteful people
and groups have tried to get it removed and destroyed. They have convinced Lake
Charles Mayor Nic Hunter, a Republican, to support their campaign, although he
claims he doesn’t want it destroyed. Maybe so, but he is still supporting their
malicious effort to destroy its meaning and make it something shameful and that
those fallen soldiers were traitors. That is just as bad or worse than
physically destroying this honorable war memorial.
All historical documents associated
with the monument show, it was dedicated in 1915—the 50th anniversary
year of the nation’s bloodiest conflict in American history—the War Between the
States. It was a tribute to Calcasieu Parish war dead and the common soldier,
not the Confederate government. Both Union and Confederate veterans took part
in the dedication ceremony, and the Union soldiers were thanked by the United
Daughters of the Confederacy, the group that raised the money for it, for the
emancipation of the nation.
The theme of the dedication was national
reconciliation, peace, and unity. There is no racist intention at all in this
beautiful monument. It consists of a bronze statue of a young color bearer stepping
forward. It stands on a tall marble column and the magnificent seven-tiered
marble base is flanked on either side by marble cannonballs. It is an exquisite
work of art and sculpture that is an important element of the manicured 1912
Calcasieu Parish Courthouse lawn. To tear that down and possibly destroy it, under
such false and shameful circumstances, would be a disgrace to all Southwest
Louisiana. Is that the way Louisianians treat its honored war dead?
Like other monuments dedicated all across
this country, it was part of the nation’s healing process. That is why the
local monument is historically significant in its own right. Clearly, there was
no ill-will or political intent of any kind in the raising of this monument.
Most citizens of goodwill, black and
white, Northerner and Southerner, alike, know the difference between a proper
symbol of our history and an improper one.
To tear down, and possibly destroy,
this historic war memorial is to say the Calcasieu men who died in that war did
not live, did not suffer, and did not leave widows, orphans and thousands of
descendants that feel the agonizing loss that only family members can
understand.
The South’s Defenders Memorial Monument
does not represent a nation, a cause, or even a war. It only symbolizes our own
tragic loss in the most difficult part of our history. And the healing of a
nation once divided by war.
It pays tribute to the common
soldier, who had very little choice in the matter, in much the same way the
Vietnam Veterans Memorial honors the fallen of another unpopular war.
If this community starts tearing
down, or neglecting, historic monuments every time the political winds change,
no monuments and no heroes will be safe in the future.
Let’s put politics aside and leave the
magnificent The South’s Defenders Memorial Monument standing proudly on the
most historically significant landscape at the 1912 Calcasieu Parish
Courthouse.
Please contact your Calcasieu Parish Police
Juror and tell him to not move The South’s Defenders Memorial Monument https://www.calcasieuparish.gov/government/police-jury/police-jurors.
