It appears that the American far Left is not just trying to remove symbols that they see as ‘offensive’ or taking hitherto relatively inconsequential images out of context, but are also trying to erase and rewrite large parts of American history. The American Left have gone beyond merely being iconoclastic and attacking the symbols of American history, but are becoming demented cultural vandals. Such is the reputation of these violent vandals that organisations that hold or display what the Left would consider ‘controversial’ are pro-actively removing artworks for fear that their entity will be physically attacked by the marauding, and often armed, Leftists.
The latest example of an organisation caving in to the Left even prior to being given any sort of threat comes from the state of North Carolina. A High School has removed an artwork, that had been painted several years ago showing an image of the Confederate President Jefferson Davis and the US President Abraham Lincoln. What is worrying is that the school caved in as a ‘pro-active’ measure to prevent the school and its staff being accused of ‘wrong-think’ by baseball bat wielding goons in masks or the equally violent and equally wrong headed Black Lives Matter movement.
It’s worrying that the school didn’t stand up for that which many Americans may take for granted, but are restricted elsewhere, that of the right to free expression. Instead the school threw the right of free expression and the right to display what they wanted within reason on their own property into the dustbin. By pre-emptively capitulating to the violent Left, the Camden County High School has shown a fair bit of cowardice especially as the image itself is probably not that controversial in reality and was the result of a student collaborative art project. The conservative leaning Truth Revolt website quite rightly points out that by caving in to the violent Left the school is ‘rewarding such domestic terrorism’.
Here’s part of the original Truth Revolt article about the latest example of the appeasement of cultural and historical vandals.
Truth Revolt said:
The Blaze reports that a North Carolina high school decided to remove a student’s painting depicting former President Abraham Lincoln and Confederate President Jefferson Davis “to avoid potentially offending anyone.”
“In light of the recent controversy in Charlottesville [Virginia] and throughout the country, we have recently removed the painting from the wall outside the media center,” Camden County High School Principal Billie Berry said.
What makes this especially aggravating is that no one had even complained about the artwork, which was painted several years ago as a joint project with the school’s students and those from a Pittsburgh high school. The school administration simply caved in pre-emptively to the radical left’s violence, thereby rewarding such domestic terrorism.
“While we have received no concerns or complaints about the artwork, we felt that it was best to be proactive and remove the painting to avoid potentially offending anyone,” Berry told a local paper.
Berry also said that the artwork “was in no way designed to promote the Confederacy” and was “simply a historical representation of the president of the United States and the Confederacy during the Civil War.”
This looks to me like utter madness. This painting wasn’t a political statement or an attempt to promote the Confederacy, it was merely a historical representation of two Presidents who were the colossi of their age, one who lost, Jefferson Davis, and the leader who led the Union forces to victory, Abraham Lincoln. I can’t for the life of me see how this painting could be a cause either for actual complaint or would feed the perception that a complaint may occur. It is plainly a painting of two prominent historical figures from two different sides of an argument, the morality of slavery, that has long since been won by those who see people as people and not as property. It is not promoting or excusing slavery it is showing the figureheads of both sides. Today there are no Americans left alive who once may have owned African slaves. Black Americans are no longer the property of another American but are equal citizens and have been so for many many years. Anybody who is likely to object to this image is unreasonable and is probably pursuing a much greater and more nasty political agenda. This painting is no more ‘offensive’ or liable to incite support for racism than would be a dual portrait of Stephen and Matilda, who were major opposing figures in England’s anarchy period of the 12th century.
I find it disgusting that in ‘the land of the free’ we have people cowering to and appeasing the sort of hoodlums and wreckers that are the best description of some of those who have resorted to violence to silence the views of others. The best way to counter the sort of bad speech that many on the left state that they opposed to is more free speech, even speech that some may find distasteful, it is not by waving baseball bats and issuing veiled or not so veiled threats of violence. The Leftist authoritarians are proving themselves ready and willing to forsake peaceful and open debate and have instead, like other groups of authoritarians before them, resorted to the fist, the stick and other weapons.
