Throughout the nation, statues of Confederate generals are disappearing. As a Southerner, I do have to say that I’m not really losing sleep over this. While I disagree with removing history, I’m not furious.
What does bother me is the hypocrisy of demanding only those statues, as well as memorials to George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and other Founders, be torn down. The Left never throws such tirades over people like naturalist and environmentalist John Muir.
Over at The Daily Caller, Peter Flaherty, president of the National Legal and Policy Center, argues that they should:
In 1867, Muir actually walked from his home in Indiana to Florida. He had no real purpose beyond studying the countryside, wildlife and plants. He chronicled this adventure in a fascinating, journal-styled book titled “A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf.”
While wandering through the river country of Georgia, Muir notes on September 25, “cotton is the principal crop hereabouts.” He goes on: “The negroes are easy-going and merry, making a great deal of noise and doing little work. One energetic white man, working with a will, would easily pick as much cotton as half a dozen Sambos and Sallies.”
Well that’s pretty damn racist.
Muir’s name adorns a college, a glacier, and even a national monument, among other things. Yet he held racist sentiments that weren’t uncommon at the time, but are rightly detested today.
Why isn’t Muir under attack from the Left, just like Christopher Columbus, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington?
Because Muir is the founder of the Sierra Club.
As the founder of a group Leftists love, Muir has been immune from the criticisms leveled against our Founding Fathers. He gets to be remembered in the same club as Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger, or progressive leader and President Woodrow Wilson. Those two chased monstrously racist goals, but are still treated fondly by the Left.
It’s only convenient for the Left to demand Thomas Jefferson or George Washington be erased from history. But environmental causes or abortion are not to be harmed, so those three get a pass.
They seem to recognize that people can hold horrible opinions while being praiseworthy for their other actions, but they only allow for it if those other actions represent Leftism. (Though on the whole, Sanger and Wilson appeared to be monsters through and through.)
Well, I’m not willing to let the Left slide on this.
If they’re going to continue to push for our Founding Fathers’ monuments and statues to be removed, then people like Sanger, Muir, and Wilson are going down, too.
The Left would never get on board, with this, though. Because this movement to tear down the past isn’t about racism. It’s about socialism.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member