OPINION:
A group of NAACP and Black Lives Matter members and supporters gathering south of Washington, D.C., called for the renaming of Jefferson Davis Highway in Northern Virginia — the region’s main north-south alternative to Interstate 95 — because he served, from 1861 to 1865, as president of the Confederate States.
He was also a politician. He was also a Democrat.
“The Stafford County NAACP sponsored the rally and created a list of initiatives, many of which focus[ed] on limiting police powers, to change what speakers called the racist foundation of the American system,” Fredericksburg.com wrote. “The list included such things as creating a civilian review board for the sheriff’s office, requiring deputes to wear body cameras and starting a police misconduct database. The initiatives also call for renaming Jefferson David Highway and for dismantling or removing ’symbols of hate.’ “
Like the Democratic Party, perchance?
The Ku Klux Klan was founded in large part by angry Democrats — though that’s not the same as saying by the Democratic Party, which leftist apologists, including social media censors, have been quick to clarify. Still, the tie is there. Democrats, lots of ’em, joined the KKK. Democrats, enough of ’em, jumped aboard the KKK bandwagon to fight to keep blacks from entering post-Civil War mainstream and political society.
And if we’re going to erase uncomfortable history and demand accountability and apologies and reparations for past racist transgressions — let’s get all the Democrats, shall we?
Next up: West Virginia.
If Jefferson Davis Highway must be renamed, so, too, Robert C. Byrd Highway; Robert C. Byrd Academic and Technology Center at Marshall University; Robert C. Byrd High School in Clarksburg, West Virginia; Robert C. Byrd Library in Wheeling, West Virginia; Robert C. Byrd Industrial Park in Moorefield, West Virginia; Robert C. Byrd Courthouse and Federal Building in Charleston, West Virginia; Robert C. Byrd Center for Hospitality and Tourism in Elkins, West Virginia — and oh, about 50 other places, structures and sites in the state. Yes, Byrd was a U.S. senator. But he was also a member of the KKK in the 1940s, and the guy in Congress who filibustered against the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
And a Democrat.
He denounced racism after leaving the Klan. But so what?
Thomas Jefferson denounced slavery, too — yet his statues are steadily being denounced, defaced and dismantles in today’s America.
“Throughout his entire life, Thomas Jefferson was publicly a consistent opponent of slavery. Calling it a ’moral depravity’ and a ’hideous blot,’ he believed that slavery presented the greatest threat to the survival of the new America nation,” The Jefferson Monticello wrote, at the same time acknowledging Jefferson had more than 600 slaves in his life. Yet during the American Revolutionary days, the organization went on to write, “Jefferson was actively involved in legislation that he hoped would result in slavery’s abolition.”
Jefferson, of course, was also primary author of perhaps the greatest document arguing for individual freedoms ever written, the Declaration of Independence. The same Declaration of Independence that serves as the foundation and guiding light for free America, circa 2020 — for whites, for blacks, for men and women of all walks of life, for all demographics, for all skin colors.
The problem with destroying history that offends is that almost all history offends someone.
Wars have winners and losers.
Ancient times cannot be viewed through the context of modern times.
Culture and society and politics constantly shift.
But learning from the past is so much better than pretending the past never happened, and then, in ignorance, traveling the same mistakes of past times. Knee-jerk, feel-good, emotionally overhyped expressions of outrage from politically partisan, anti-American or special interest-driven individuals shouldn’t be keepers of the U.S. history and cultural key.
The question is: When to stop?
Sadly, there’s no good answer. It’s only when the mob decides to stop that it’ll stop.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter by clicking HERE.
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