One of the most heated arguments that our nation has been engaged in as of late harkens back to the days of Americans slavery and President Abraham Lincoln’s quest to end the wicked institution.
The question posed today is whether or not we have any viable reason to keep Confederate monuments around.
Those who wish to see them gone point to their potential to offend people of color as a reason to remove them, believing that any historical value that they may have makes them better suited to live within a museum.
Defenders of the monuments claim that the Confederacy was comprised of Americans, albeit misguided Americans, and they should be celebrated as veterans.
These two sides have been duking it out on the national stage, often ending with monuments being uprooted, toppled, or relocated.
In one southern locale, however, a Confederate monument came under the consideration of the townspeople who summarily voted to allow it to remain.
Hurricane Laura had a different idea.
Hurricane Laura toppled a Confederate monument in Lake Charles, La., — just two weeks after local officials voted to keep it in place.
As the storm made landfall with 150 mph winds early Thursday morning, it ripped through buildings, vehicles, trees and power lines.
It also knocked the statue of a Confederate soldier off of the South’s Defenders Monument outside the Calcasieu Parish Courthouse, the Lafayette Daily Advertiser reported.
The photos were striking.
My dad sent me some pics of the South’s Defenders monument in Downtown Lake Charles post-Laura and… I think some people may be happy about this. #HurricanLaura #HurricaneLaura2020 #Louisiana #lakecharleslouisiana #LakeCharles pic.twitter.com/dzHd5dSwNH
— Andrew Beam #PrayForLakeCharles (@dancemachine48) August 27, 2020
Hurricane Laura crashed into Louisiana’s gulf coast in the wee, dark hours of Thursday morning, leaving a trail of utter destruction in her wake.
