Monuments

The European Commission had a thought on the occasion of the European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism, that while not explicitly about monuments is related:

The European Union was built on the common values of human dignity, fundamental rights, rule of law and democracy, and on the rejection of extreme nationalism.

We must never take these rights and freedoms for granted. We pledge to fight for them every day.

Extremism, nationalism, xenophobia and hatred can still be heard in public speech in Europe. Keeping these memories alive is not only a tribute to the victims but also a way to ensure that these ideologies can be forcefully rejected and such atrocities never happen again.

We stand firm in our defense of democracy, the rule of law and fundamental rights, in Europe and worldwide. There is no place in the European Union for extremism, intolerance and oppression.

These remarks dovetail tightly with a suggestion by Vice President Mike Pence:

I hold the view that it’s important that we remember our past and build on the progress that we have made.

I’m someone who believes in more monuments, not less monuments.  What we ought to do is we ought to remember our history, but we also ought to celebrate the progress that we’ve made since that history.

And

When I walked back in 2010 across the Edmund Pettus Bridge…we remembered Bloody Sunday and the extraordinary progress of the civil rights movement, and I can’t help but think that, rather than pulling down monuments, as some are wont to do…we ought to have been building more monuments[.]

Hmm….

Getting Ridiculous

ESPN has withdrawn one of its sportscasters from calling a University of Virginia football game for the sole reason that he bears the evil name of Robert Lee.  Not Robert E Lee, the Civil War evil general’s name, just Robert Lee.  That’s too close to evil for the PC gang.

Instead Lee (if I might be permitted to use that name) was reassigned to “a different game” where he’ll be more out of sight.

ESPN notes that assignments are switched all the time.

Including for racist reasons.

Hate Groups

A petition to label the anti-Trump group “Antifa” a terrorist organization sped past the requirement of 100,000 signatures needed to get a response from the White House.

The petition says Antifa’s “violent actions in multiple cities and their influence in the killings of multiple police officers throughout the United States” earns it the terrorist designation.

Assaults from Evergreen College to Charlottesville, using terrorist tactics and purposes, if not the bombs and mass shootings of more classical terrorist gangs.

The petition can be seen, and signed, here.

Meanwhile, ex-Vermont Governor and Democratic Presidential candidate Howard Dean (D) is a hate group all to himself.

If you want to vote for a racist in the White House, then you better vote for Republicans[.]

One More Bit Related to Charlottesville

…and the attack on Southern heritage (according to some, who have nothing to do with any hate group) or on symbols of slavery and oppression (according to some others, who also have nothing to do with any hate group).  This one is by Steven Hayward of Powerline:

So we seem to be on our way to tearing down every statue related to the Democratic Party’s largest achievement in American history—the Confederate States of America. Funny how the Confederate battle flag, and now statues, didn’t start to come down until Republicans became ascendant in southern states. Democrats who had a monopoly grip on the South for decades had lots of time to take these steps, but didn’t. You’d almost think they were opportunists.

RTWT