(DailyVantage.com) – The Army plans to remove a Confederate memorial from Arlington National Cemetery within the next few days, despite resistance from multiple Republican lawmakers. The monument is known as the Reconciliation Monument, and the Army seeks its removal due to the ongoing nationwide effort by progressives to remove any memorials or statutes relating to the Confederacy. The Army released a statement about the memorial’s removal, claiming it’ll remove the statute by December 22nd.
The push to remove Confederate memorials started in 2020 with the Black Lives Matter summer protests. According to liberals, Confederate memorials are racist due to their association with slavery, and such memorials must be removed. Congress responded to the calls for removal by issuing a mandate to remove any Confederate statues or memorials by January 1, 2024. Despite the Congressional mandate, Republican lawmakers are criticizing the decision to remove memorials and statues relating to the Civil War.
Representative Andrew Clyde is among the Republicans fighting against the memorial’s removal and deconstruction. Clyde wrote a letter to Department of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, demanding the statue remain in Arlington National Cemetery until the end of 2024. In the letter, Clyde claimed the statute represents the reunification of the United States following the Civil War rather than glorifying the Confederacy. Clyde also argued that removing the statute from Arlington National Cemetery would desecrate the graves of Civil War soldiers buried in the area. Clyde criticized the Congressional mandate in the letter, claiming it was a legislative overstep by the Naming Commission.
The Naming Commission heavily advocated for the Congressional mandate, which passed into law in 2020. The mandate requires the Department of Defense to remove statues, names, monuments, or other items that honor the Confederacy. Among the statues already removed due to the mandate are several statues of Robert E. Lee, the Confederacy’s commanding military general, and several general monuments to Confederate soldiers who died in the Civil War.
Following the press release, a spokesperson for Arlington National Cemetery discussed the statue’s imminent removal. According to the spokesperson, the Department of Defense installed a security fence around the Reconciliation Monument, and plans to deconstruct the monument are underway. Arlington National Cemetery constructed the monument in 1914, and it has remained in Arlington for over 100 years.
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