Trump’s Next Move Ought to Be to Restore the Statues

The Confederate Statue at the Bell County Courthouse on 7-15-20 (Photo by Lynn Woolley for WBDaily)

It’s not easy getting out ahead of President Trump.  I had thought of writing a column about naming English as the official language – but then he did it.  So, I’m trying to be quick about this one.

 I want every single statue that the woke mob tore down to be reinstated. 

It’s not that all the people those statues represented were perfect.  But they were people of their times and modern sensibilities would be alien to them.  The word for that is “presentism,” the idea that all people through the ages ought to have the precise same values that today’s liberals have.

The other thing is “cancel culture” – the idea that a race-based, radical, segment of society became so powerful that it could tear down statues and force the renaming of schools.

President Trump – restore the statues.

I watched in horror as the statues came down – but that wasn’t what caused the horror.

Statues honoring Confederate generals and such have been a thorn in side of civil right figures for decades, and I get it.  Slavery was a very bad thing and no one is happy that it happened in our country.  Jim Crow was bad too, and thank God that it’s gone.  America went through a Civil War and an era of civil unrest to plunge a stake into the heart of those things.  Good riddance.

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And yes, I believe that the unvarnished truth should be taught in our history classes – but not to teach that America is an evil nation conceived in the original sin of slavery.

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Maybe history classes should add lessons about what other nations condoned the practice, and who sold human beings into slavery, and where it still exists in the world today.  And what we can do about it.   As for statues, do we learn from history so as not to repeat it, or do we have a national temper tantrum and tear down what we don’t like?

That was what horrified me. 

Watching on TV as mobs put ropes around statues of our Founding Fathers and Framers of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and tore them down with impunity.  The police did not stop them.  No one sent the National Guard.  It was as if the mob was in full control, and could lay waste to statues of people that I was taught were heroes.  This was explained as “woke.”  The people had been asleep for generations, but now were woke, and those statues must come tumbling down.

I kept thinking: and yet governments and organizations worked and saved money to have those statues made because they wanted memorials to forefathers they felt were deserving.  How would the mob feel if someone starting tearing down statutes of Booker T. Washington, George Washington Carver, Harriet Tubman, and Martin Luther King, Jr.?

I’ll say this for myself:  I never wanted to tear down ANY statute.

Texas’ 3rd governor, Peter H. Bell, statue, in Belton, TX on 7-15-20. (Photo by Lynn Woolley for WBDaily)

Statues are great for remembering the past.  They mean different things to different people.

I remember one Fourth of July, years ago, standing by a statue of Peter Hansborough Bell, the namesake of Bell County, Texas.  I read the inscription and then looked him up online.  There were things to admire and things to ponder about P. H. Bell.  I wrote a column about it. I never imagined that anyone would ever consider tearing his statue down.

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Also on the grounds of the Bell County Courthouse is a generic statue of a Confederate soldier.  Many times, that statue has been discussed, cussed, disparaged, and defended, but it still stands.  As it should.

I want to build more statues.  Statues are good.  They make us think, and study history. 

These figures from the past were not like us, but they were not Adolph Hitler, either.  They were not Lenin, or even Vladimir Putin.  They may have owned slaves, but they built a great nation that fought a war to end slavery and, after Jim Crow, realized that our Founding Documents apply to all Americans.

I would note that no one has ever suggested a statue of Hitler.  Thank God.  But even though Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are, to me, outrageous race-baiters and conmen, they are heroes to other people.  I would not contribute to a fund to build statues in their honor.   But I don’t mind if you do.  If you build them, I will not assemble a mob to tear them down.

Detail of the Bell County Confederate Statue (Photo by Lynn Woolley for WBDaily)

It’s time to restore the names of schools and institutions and restore the statues.

My alma mater, the University of Texas, took down statues.  That was embarrassing.  Let’s put them back.  Let’s get rid of “Midland Legacy High School” and bring back the heritage of that school as Robert E. Lee High.

The Trump administration has already restored some of the military bases that had been renamed due to the mob.  Let’s bring back Fort Hood as well – and perhaps erect a statue of General Richard E. Cavazos. He’s more than deserving, but let’s add an honor to him without subtracting.

Cancel culture is a sick part of the woke movement that, under Trump, is being steadily dissembled.  It couldn’t happen to a more toxic ideology.  It would not surprise me if Trump issues an order to restore the statues.

We’ll have to make some from scratch because the mob destroyed them, but that’s fine with me.  In the meantime, if anyone wants to make a statue of George Floyd, do it.  No one should spray-paint it or damage it in any way.  I’m no fan of Mr. Floyd’s, however, I would do no harm to his statue.  But leave George Washington alone, too.

President Trump, it’s past time to restore the statues.

Lynn Woolley is a Texas-based author, broadcaster, and songwriter.  Follow his podcast at https://www.PlanetLogic.us.  Check out his author’s page at https://www.Amazon.com/author/lynnwoolley. 

Order books direct from Lynn at https://PlanetLogicPress.Square.Site. 

Email Lynn at lwoolley9189@gmail.com.

Order this book now, and discover what it might be like if there were no United States and no constitution.