Fight To Save Confederate Monument In North Carolina Supreme Court
For the record, I am 100% against cancel culture and monument/statue removal. It’s not that I don’t understand WHY people want these removed. And yes, those two statements can exist in the same space. My objection is very simple. It is unfair on every level to judge men and women of history through a modern prism. I read once that the average male in the south in the 1800s, was born, raised, lived, and died within a 10-mile radius. Think about that for a second. I drive 38 miles, round-trip, from home to work and back each day. How “worldly” can one expect of any person with that limited a life experience to be? It’s ludicrous. And once you start judging like this, where do you stop? Do you really want to know about Thomas Jefferson and slaves? I’ll answer that for you. You don’t.
Who knows how our actions will be looked upon by society 100-200 years from now. Do you want someone passing judgement on your thoughts/words/deeds though a future prism? I answer that for you. You don’t.
All this leads to the monument of Zebulon Baird Vance. He was a Confederate Colonel, later governor of North Carolina and a United States Senator. A monument in his honor was erected in Asheville in 1898. In 2021, cancel culture came calling and the Asheville City Council voted for its removal. The statue was torn down (nothing but the base remains). Now, the North Carolina Supreme Court has heard oral arguments in a lawsuit brought by The Society for the Historical Preservation of the 26th North Carolina Troops over said removal. The whole case hinges on the validity of a preservation contract between the group and the city.
The pieces of the monument are in storage. The advocacy group hopes to be able to rebuild the statue. Something tells me even the group wins the case, the victory at best will be a symbolic one against cancel culture.
The Zebulon Baird Vance monument no longer exists. Rebuild won’t happen. I only hope I can one day soon say that about the cancel culture that came for it in the first place.
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