Another Example of Stupidity
It seems some are still hell bent on twisting historical accuracy, and making everything Southern, especially in regard to the Civil War, racist. This is beyond ridiculous. Now the inaccurate perception of the Confederacy has spread to California. It is unbelievably sad to me that people can’t respect our ancestors and honor their graves. We have no concept of what life was like when they were alive, so it’s wrong to classify their beliefs by today’s standards.
CONFEDERATE MONUMENT DEFACED LAST MONTH HAS BEEN REMOVED FROM SANTA ANA CEMETERY
Alicia Robinson, August 1, 2019
A monument to Confederate soldiers who settled in and helped establish Orange County after the Civil War no longer stands at the Santa Ana Cemetery.
Erected in 2004 by the Sons of Confederate Veterans, the 9-foot-tall granite structure – which had been vandalized with red paint and the word “racists” last month – was removed early Thursday, Aug. 1, Orange County Cemetery.
District General Manager Tim Deutsch said in a news release. The district operates three public cemeteries, including Santa Ana.
Hundreds of Civil War veterans are buried in Orange County, most of whom fought for the Union. A monument dedicated to “the unknown dead of the Civil War ”was previously installed at the Santa Ana Cemetery by the Daughters of Union Veterans.
The Confederate monument removed Thursday may be the last one in Orange County and among only a few that were left in California. A February survey by the Southern Poverty Law Center listed a monument in Bakersfield and a highway marker in Siskiyou County, both honoring Confederate States of America President Jefferson Davis, as the state’s two remaining memorials.
Public attention settled on the Santa Ana monument in 2017, after a confrontation between groups of white supremacists and protesters ended in a woman’s death in Charlottesville, Va. Cemetery district officials realized they couldn’t find records to prove who owned the burial plots where the monument stands or that it was approved by the district’s board, according to letters from Deutsch and an attorney for the district.
The district contacted the Orange County chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans to discuss altering the monument per an agreement the two parties had apparently reached. But Deutsch said last month the Confederate group had not followed through
and had stopped responding to his inquiries, so the district’s board ordered the monument removed.
Robert Williams, who leads the Orange County chapter and statewide division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, disputes the district’s account of the monument saga.
Reached Thursday, Williams said district officials are motivated by “the most absurd kind of political correctness” and that there are plenty of records and people who were involved in putting up the monument. Cemetery district leaders at the time chose the monument’s location, he said.
“Nobody put it there in the middle of the night – there was a huge public ceremony,” Williams said.
The purpose of the monument was not political or for “extolling war, Confederate victories or Confederate generals,” he added. He said the monument recognizes founding fathers prominent in establishing Orange County who had come to the area after fighting for the South.
The monument names 10 men and also commemorates “C.S.A,” the Confederate States of America. Two panels are etched with the names of Davis and Gen. Robert E. Lee.
In the news release, Deutsch said the district wanted the monument out quickly because there’s a shortage of burial plots, and it became “an unsightly public nuisance” after the vandalism. It’s costing an estimated $15,000 to remove and store the granite pillar (a 100-foot crane was required because it weights several tons), so Williams’ group would have to reimburse the district to get the monument back, the release said.
Williams said he believes the district’s actions, seizing and removing private property, were illegal.
“We went out of our way to placate what sensitivities some may have about the Civil War,” he said. “The county’s going to have to answer, because they don’t own that.”
How disgusting. Santa Ana spits on it’s own History. Last Friday was the 130th Anniversary of the founding of Orange County, and the Santa Ana Cemetery removed the Founders Monument in the middle of the night. Why you ask? Because the men were ex-Confederate Soldiers who traded swords for plows, and came out west looking for a better life than Reconstruction Era in Dixie offered. These men were all duly elected officials for the County of Los Angeles who formed OC by seceding the southern sections they represented from LA. These men worked with their Union Veteran counterparts to create what is now Orange County.
If you’d like to contact the Orange County Cemetery District and express your displeasure, they can be reached at 949-951-9102. Be respectful and no foul language!!!
Honor your Ancestors’ good memory.
Deo Vindice.
#SCV #DixieWest #SantaAnaCemetery #OrangeCounty
(Article courtesy of The Southern Comfort, Private Samuel A. Hughey Camp 1452, Sons of Confederate Veterans Newsletter, Volume 43, Issue No. 8, August 2019 ed.)
J.D.R. Hawkins 