August 18,2017
the staff of the Ridgewood Blog
Succasunna NJ, Heather Darling ,Morris County GOP Freeholder candidate responded to the attempt to purge and cleanse American history thru the destruction of public monuments.
“The notion that by removing statues and monuments, we can somehow erase the past that brought us to this day is reminiscent of Orwell’s 1984. As I recall, the ideas set forth in that book seemed horrific to me when I read it years ago and they sit no better with me today. In a society where some seek individuality so strongly, it seems to be such a contrary notion that they would then gather, as individuals, to completely sanitize any record of individuality in favor of socialism.
“And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed – if all records told the same tale – then the lie passed into history and became truth. “Who controls the past,” ran the Party slogan, “controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.” And yet the past, though of its nature alterable, never had been altered. Whatever was true now was true from everlasting to everlasting. It was quite simple. All that was needed was an unending series of victories over your own memory. “Reality control,” they called it: in Newspeak, “doublethink”.”
-George Orwell 1984, Chapter 3, Paragraph 18
The United States is comprised of diverse people with individual histories from nations with histories. Those coming to our country for freedom neither seek to, nor should they, erase their history. By the same token, the history of the people in this country should not be erased.
This is not to say that I support what has occurred in any of our histories, as touring prison camps and museums in Europe was difficult for me for what my ancestors suffered there. However, that is part of my history. My ancestors rose up and overcame the oppression just as slavery was overcome in this country. Memorials, statues, buildings and sacred grounds are better seen as places we may go to pay tribute to those who suffered in order to teach us the lessons needed to bring us to the place we are today and serve as reminders of what we can never allow again. “
She’s wrong – the South should get over it – they lost. They are arguing the kind of philosophy that hands out trophies to everyone regardless of their performance. But if you lose, you shouldn’t get a trophy. Did Germany or Japan get second place medals?
Confederate soldiers were formally recognized as U.S. veterans by a post-Civil War act of Congress. In many cases, therefore, these mental midgets are engaging in wanton acts of desecration in violation of federal law. Not that modern law enforcement will dare to touch a wittle hair on their pretty wittle special snowflake heads.