Florida city to rename streets honoring Confederate generals

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. (AP) — City commissioners in Florida have agreed to begin the process of changing the names of streets named after Confederate generals in the heart of an African-American neighborhood.

During a contentious three-hour meeting Monday night, the Hollywood City Commission voted 5-2 to begin renaming Lee Street, named after Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee; Hood Street, named after Gen. John Bell Hood, and Forrest Street, named after Confederate general and Ku Klux Klan member Nathan Bedford Forrest.

“It is time to change the names and the time is now,” Commissioner Debra Case said during the meeting. “We must do the right thing and we must do it now.”

The SunSentinel reports a final vote is expected when the board returns from its summer break on Aug. 30.

http://mynorthwest.com/681947/florida-city-to-rename-streets-honoring-confederate-generals/

[RandySF]

1. Confederate monuments are nothing but participation trophies.

[Igel]

5. Some are, some aren't.

I used to routinely bike by a monument to those who died in the Spanish-American War. It was a war we won; not all think it was a reasonable war, but those who died did die in it, did have loved ones and family members who mourned them and wanted their loss memorialized.

The monument was built not moments after the conclusion of the war, when the pain was fresh, but as the older members of that generation that fought the war was dying, when the memory of their deaths would be forgotten, and when the younger members who fought in it were at the point in their lives when they had as much power and wealth as they would, and could see their end in sight. Most monuments to war date to that time, 40 or so years after the war ended. Usually the impediment is fund-raising.

It's one thing to mourn the dead and praise their bravery. I'd have no trouble mourning the German or Japanese dead in WWII or the dead that fought in the Russian Civil War on either side. It's not something I fret over one way or the other though, but I'd find it inhumane to ask Japanese not to mourn their dead children. I'd have to be very bitter and hardened to go that far. Even central Europeans I met who suffered greatly under Soviet domination nonetheless could acknowledge the Red Army's losses. And the Germans'.

It's quite another to laud the glory of the cause itself, however. (And so one of the things done when the Soviets "lost" Eastern Europe was to have all the appreciation for the Red Army's losses effaced.)

It's a simple matter to separate the two.

[Blue_true]

7. I completely lost any connection.

So are you saying confederate monuments are ok? If so, why weren't they made for locals that fought in the Civil War. Or better yet, if southerners wanted to nationalize the statue, of either General Sherman or General Sheridan, because lord knows they saved a lot of southern boys lives by judiciously ending the Civil War.

[TheOther95Percent]

8. Separating the Two

Many of the confederate monuments that went up between 1890 and 1940 - a period some historians call the nadir of American race relations. As such, the monuments are less about honoring the war dead and more about promoting the white supremacy narrative. In fact, many such monuments were erected by groups of individuals interested in promoting both the Lost Cause narrative and the racial superiority of persons of northern European ancestry. The American landscape is full of such monuments. I think that there needs to be an acknowledgement and a reinterpretation of what the white supremacy monuments are about.

[tecelote]

2. Want to really get the goat of someone wearing or displaying the confederate flag?

Ask them why they wear the "old" confederate flag and do not honor the final version.

When they give you a stupid look, just say "You know, the one that is solid white?"

[Maraya1969]

4. Good idea!

[Maraya1969]

3. I live in Lee county FL. I'm all for changing the name of this county

[mitch96]

6. I live in Hollyweird and it's about time it was done.

To me it's tantamount to having Hitler avenue, Goebbels lane and Himmler highway running thru a Jewish neighborhood... Not cool.
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