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struggle4progress

(118,320 posts)
Fri Aug 18, 2017, 03:28 AM Aug 2017

Confederate Memorial in Arlington

By T. Rees Shapiro
August 17 at 9:09 PM

On the western edge of Arlington National Cemetery stands a 32-foot-tall bronze hymn to soldiers of a bygone past ...

... It is the Confederate Memorial. A soaring testament to Southern pride, placed in Arlington nearly 50 years after the Civil War ended, the monument features a frieze depicting Rebels shouldering rifles, a black slave following his master and an enslaved woman — described on the cemetery’s website as a “mammy” — cradling a Confederate officer’s infant ...

The Arlington cemetery .. is on property administered by the Department of the Army. The Confederate Memorial, erected in the early 20th century, is encircled by 482 graves of Rebel officers, enlisted men and others affiliated with their cause. Plenty of critics support its removal, including the NAACP, the Southern Poverty Law Center and the National Association of Black Veterans ...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/confederate-memorial-in-arlington-honoring-rebels-on-nations-sacred-ground/2017/08/17/d2be2576-80be-11e7-ab27-1a21a8e006ab_story.html?utm_term=.0a239b3e0210

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Confederate Memorial in Arlington (Original Post) struggle4progress Aug 2017 OP
Arlington is a monument to war Not Ruth Aug 2017 #1
That would be a "winning" proposition for any exboyfil Aug 2017 #2
Arlington is a cemetery Dennis Donovan Aug 2017 #3
and it used to be melm00se Aug 2017 #8
My grandfather is buried there.... Adrahil Aug 2017 #4
Wow! That's quite an honor! Rhiannon12866 Aug 2017 #5
Thanks.... Adrahil Aug 2017 #6
Wow! There aren't a lot of women there that I recall Rhiannon12866 Aug 2017 #7
She was a remarkable woman! Adrahil Aug 2017 #11
Would your grandfather want to glorify war for eternity Not Ruth Aug 2017 #12
He fought in WWI.... he suffered life-long damage... Adrahil Aug 2017 #13
Mine volunteered and fought in WW2 with half of his neighborhood and seemed to have undiagnosed PTSD Not Ruth Aug 2017 #14
WTF? Lee-Lee Aug 2017 #9
Ridiculous nonsense. FSogol Aug 2017 #10

melm00se

(4,993 posts)
8. and it used to be
Fri Aug 18, 2017, 08:25 AM
Aug 2017

part of Robert E. Lee's estate.

It was seized by the government and graves placed as close to the mansion as possible to prevent the Lee's from going back into the house.

 

Adrahil

(13,340 posts)
6. Thanks....
Fri Aug 18, 2017, 07:45 AM
Aug 2017

My wife's grandmother is buried there too. She was in the Navy during WWI and served in Pershing's hq!

Rhiannon12866

(205,731 posts)
7. Wow! There aren't a lot of women there that I recall
Fri Aug 18, 2017, 07:54 AM
Aug 2017

And especially from WWI! She certainly had a front row seat to history!

My grandfathers both served in WWI. I never met them, they died long before I was born. But my mother's father emigrated from Poland at 18 and they made him a citizen and sent him to France. We really are a nation of immigrants, too.

 

Adrahil

(13,340 posts)
11. She was a remarkable woman!
Fri Aug 18, 2017, 09:07 AM
Aug 2017

She "commanded" her local American Legion for years, and at one point was the oldest living female veteran of WWI (she met the President at the time... I think it was Ronny Raygun?)

 

Not Ruth

(3,613 posts)
12. Would your grandfather want to glorify war for eternity
Fri Aug 18, 2017, 09:25 AM
Aug 2017

Mine would not. My grandfather had the option to be in a military cemetery and I chose otherwise.

 

Adrahil

(13,340 posts)
13. He fought in WWI.... he suffered life-long damage...
Fri Aug 18, 2017, 09:38 AM
Aug 2017

His lungs were damaged by poison gas in the war and he suffered from that the rest of his life.

His burial there honors his service in a solemn way.

I don't consider that glorifying war.

Wars are terrible, terrible things. That doesn't mean we shouldn't honor those who served.

My grandfather had expressed his desire to be buried at Arlington, since he was eligible.

 

Not Ruth

(3,613 posts)
14. Mine volunteered and fought in WW2 with half of his neighborhood and seemed to have undiagnosed PTSD
Fri Aug 18, 2017, 09:54 AM
Aug 2017
 

Lee-Lee

(6,324 posts)
9. WTF?
Fri Aug 18, 2017, 08:40 AM
Aug 2017

Yeah, that is sure to be a winning idea.

Do you want veterans gravestones issued by the VA ripped out of every cemetery in the nation too?

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