Removal of the Reconciliation Monument is part of the left’s effort to remove Confederate installations from military sites.
A Confederate Monument in Arlington National Cemetery has been ordered to be removed despite pushback from GOP lawmakers.
The removal of the Reconciliation Monument, also known as the Confederate Memorial, is part of a government effort to remove Confederate installations from military sites.
Construction crews were seen beginning their dismantling of the monument on Monday.
The deletion of history begins pic.twitter.com/Bhsot16vJP
— Corey Inganamort (@TheBirdWords) December 18, 2023
“During the deconstruction, the area around the Memorial will be protected to ensure no impact to the surrounding landscape and grave markers and to ensure the safety of visitors in and around the vicinity of the deconstruction,” the cemetery news release said.
However, Trump-appointed federal Judge Rossie Alston Jr. has ordered the temporary halting of the monument’s removal on Monday after a group called Defend Arlington filed a lawsuit Sunday in federal court seeking a restraining order.
“The removal will desecrate, damage, and likely destroy the Memorial longstanding at ANC as a grave marker and impede the Memorial’s eligibility for listing on the National Register of Historic Places,” the lawsuit alleges.
BREAKING: Trump appointed U.S. District Judge Rossie Alston has issued a restraining order halting the removal of a Confederate memorial at Arlington National Cemetery.
The memorial removal began on Monday but was halted after Alston’s order was issued.
Alston explained that… pic.twitter.com/FKQS2aEVPe
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) December 18, 2023
44 lawmakers, led by Republican Rep. Andrew Clyde (Ga.) wrote a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin demanding the Reconciliation Monument be kept, Fox News reported.
“In 1900, Congress authorized Confederate remains to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery, and in 1906, Secretary of War, William Howard Taft, permitted construction of a monument honoring our country’s new shared reconciliation from its troubled divisions,” they wrote.
“The Department of Defense must comply with this request or risk denigrating the delicate balance of the principles of separation of powers between Congress and the Executive, outlined in the Constitution,” they added.
An independent commission recommended in 2022 that the memorial be taken down as part of its final report to Congress on renaming of military bases and assets that commemorate the Confederacy.
But as Clyde noted, the monument “does not honor nor commemorate the Confederacy; the memorial commemorates reconciliation and national unity.”
The Federalist’s Sean Davis lambasted the Biden regime’s push to remove the monument, saying the move signals the “left clearly has zero interest in reconciliation with anyone in this country who opposes their political agenda.”
“The destruction of the Reconciliation Monument is so much worse than mere iconoclasm, which is bad enough by itself,” he wrote on X. “The only reason to make a scene of destroying a monument to the reconciliation of two sides who were at war with each other is to signal that reconciliation going forward will also not be tolerated.”
The destruction of the Reconciliation Monument is so much worse than mere iconoclasm, which is bad enough by itself. The only reason to make a scene of destroying a monument to the reconciliation of two sides who were at war with each other is to signal that reconciliation going… https://t.co/RyotZmWaKo
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) December 18, 2023
“They are not disguising this hatred. In fact, they are so open about their refusal to ever allow anyone else to wield power or even exist outside their clutches that they’re willing to rip out and destroy a literal monument to American reconciliation,” he added.
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) disagreed with the removal and plans to move the monument to the New Market Battlefield State Historical Park in the Shenandoah Valley.
