We do not need “a conversation” about Confederate monuments in San Antonio. Observation will do. The Confederacy mounted an armed insurrection against the United States of America to defend slavery and the racist ideology underpinning it. Slavery, racism, and their defense or glorification are abominable to human dignity, earthly justice, and divine will.
Therefore, monuments to the Confederacy or those who fought on its behalf should be removed immediately. Baltimore provides just one recent example of what decisive leadership looks like; the city removed its monuments on Aug. 16 after having decided to do so on Aug. 15.
By contrast, San Antonio’s leadership can only be described as feckless. On July 25, two City Council members formally proposed creating a committee of an unspecified number of people to determine what to do with the Confederate monument in Travis Park. If the request is successful, the committee will be formed, hold hearings, and make recommendations, which will then require further procedure for the City to implement. Meanwhile, the Confederate monument will continue to stand in a public park with the implicit imprimatur of our government, making San Antonio look weak and indecisive.
So what would the proposed committee, with all its inherent delays, really accomplish?
First, by creating new appointments to fill, the committee would provide yet another opportunity for political patronage in a city already rife with it. Second, ??by delegating ?the Confederate monument decision to a ?committee, politicians ?can privately disclaim responsibility for the outcome and appease the “many sides” President Donald Trump spoke of with outrageous even-handedness after Charlottesville’s deadly rallies. These are not public benefits. They are political maneuvers. Worse, these maneuvers put San Antonians at risk by giving hatemongers more time to divide the community and create public safety problems at Travis Park.
By contrast, a local truth-and-reconciliation commission would be a good way to begin to address the legacies of both slavery and Tejano displacement in San Antonio. Unfortunately, that is not what was proposed on July 25. What was proposed was more unfathomable delay in a matter that is both operationally discrete and morally clear. We deserve better. If sister cities in the heart of the old Confederacy can act with efficiency and dispatch, so can we, and that means that those with the power to direct government action should do the right and simple thing now.
Therefore, as a resident of District 1, where San Antonio’s Confederate monument
stands, and as a San Antonio native who knows our city to be fully capable of rising to the occasion, I urge Mayor Ron Nirenberg to place on the next full City Council meeting agenda a new and better proposal: to direct the City to immediately remove the Confederate monument from Travis Park to a secure storage facility. There, it can be held until the proposed committee decides its ultimate fate.
But immediate removal is the only morally acceptable course of action in our current national moment. Anything less would be to disappoint the demands of justice and succumb to the corrupting influence of political calculation.
If we do not have a conversation, who is deciding these important issues? I am not for what these Confederate statues represent, but before we start “beating the drums”, there should be a plan on where they are going. As an artist, and native of SA, before we start tearing down something that has been there for many, many years, a conversation and a plan are essential. Otherwise the whole issue reeks of “herd mentality”.
Amen! I’ve been calling it mob mentality…because that’s how they have been acting…like little angry mobs.
It’s difficult for me to understand the reluctance of our city’s leaders to move on this issue. The Charlottesville events brought back to me those ugly scenes in the early ’60 of herds of white people screaming racial epithets and hate at high school age children as they were escorted by armed troops into a school in Arkansas. Time passes quickly but justice moves glacially. One of the reasons I fell in love with San Antonio is its ethnic diversity and commitment to racial justice and equality, in theory if not always in practice. Monuments to white supremacy need to disappear from the public square. Time to operationalize the rhetoric.
Bravo Michael! 100% agree with you. It’s time for all us Texans to grow up!
Myfe Moore
Myfe@mwmlc.com
Wow, just wow. So many things wrong with this commentary. The Civil War was over state’s rights not slavery. And as for wishing to ignore the conversations among the people and swiftly dole out what one side of the argument is terrible. No wonder the writer lost their election. Signs of one who is a heavy handed divider not a compromising leader which is essential in a democracy.
The Civil War was over slavey. Full stop. The Confederate States themselves, when treasonously seceding from the Union, made it very clear why they were doing so.
Texas proudly seceded from the Union, proclaiming “She was received into the confederacy with her own constitution, under the guarantee of the federal constitution and the compact of annexation, that she should enjoy these blessings. She was received as a commonwealth holding, maintaining and protecting the institution known as negro slavery– the servitude of the African to the white race within her limits– a relation that had existed from the first settlement of her wilderness by the white race, and which her people intended should exist in all future time.”
The other Confederate states made similar proclamations in their secession declarations.
The Civil War was over slavery. We went to war because of a fundamental disagreement of whether or not black people were “people” or “property.” We went to war because of White Supremacy. This is what blood was spilled for. Make no mistake about who won, who lost, and why the war happened in the first place.
Really disappointing piece.
Do any of those people who want the memorial to be removed realize there were Tejano Confederate soilders?
They didn’t fight to defend slavery but because their land was in Texas and they wanted to defend what was theirs?
Use your Yale and Stanford degrees Michael Montaño and do little research before writing next time.
Stop making things just “black and white” and stop feeding the “angry minority” mentality…it’s literally a state of mind.
We are so intent on erasing our past. It happened. Why deny it?
Modify the monuments into a teaching opportunities that remind us of the past that we appear to be repeating.
Maybe we can have the city move in under the cover of night and remove the monument to the dead soldiers. The city employees could wear disguises or facemasks to prevent detection.
Although I agree with the premise of removing the statue from Travis Park, removing it without public discourse lessens the impact of this “teachable moment.”
The confederacy was defeated, but there are groups attaching their violent hatred of others to these monuments. These groups have not been “defeated,” and many of us live with the reality that they are walking among us throughout the city.
Allowing the community to come together and decide as a whole to move the statue will reinforce confidence in our neighbors and show these groups that they are, in fact, the minority.
I’m sure our City Council and Mayor have no intention of dragging this process out. And I’m sure they value your input just as they value that of all constituents.
What did the Confederate States of America stand for and why did a slim majority of Texans vote for secession? In their own words “We hold as undeniable truths that the governments of the various States, and of the confederacy itself, were established exclusively by the white race, for themselves and their posterity; that the African race had no agency in their establishment; that they were rightfully held and regarded as an inferior and dependent race, and in that condition only could their existence in this country be rendered beneficial or tolerable.” Perhaps this historical statement could be posted in and around Travis Park to inform the discussion on what to do with the Confederate monument. Bravo Michael!
Here’s how to solve the removal vs. stay problem. Those communities who wish to keep them should also be fine with listing this below them:
“That in this free government *all white men are and of right ought to be entitled to equal civil and political rights*; that the servitude of the African race, as existing in these States, is mutually beneficial to both bond and free, and is abundantly authorized and justified by the experience of mankind, and the revealed will of the Almighty Creator, as recognized by all Christian nations; while the destruction of the existing relations between the two races, as advocated by our sectional enemies, would bring inevitable calamities upon both and desolation upon the fifteen slave-holding states.” – A Declaration of the Causes which Impel the State of Texas to Secede from the Federal Union, 1861.
That’s history right there. That’s evidence of Texas’ racist and slave-owning past. That’s the very definition of racism. That’s the very definition of white supremacy. That is everything we went to war as a country about. And that should never, ever be forgotten or trivialized.
The Alamo was defended and saved by those who wanted to establish an independent republic where slavery would be legal. This should make the Alamo eligible for the removal list of the present day madness to erase the unpleasant past. However, if you destroy or remove the Alamo to some other location, who’s gonna come to San Antonio to stay in one of our many low occupancy rate hotels (with several more under construction) just to look at our overcrowded river walk.
It probably makes no difference because in a few years, the many, if not most potential tourist who will consider whether to visit San Antonio and the Alamo, will be the present day biracial millennials who do not seem to be too impressed with that kind of history and will choose some other destination.
I hear that there are now people asking for the removal of the Columbus statue in Columbus Plaza. Where will this end? Just add a statue of Martin Luther King in Travis Plaza and tell both sides of the story.
I say it would be cheaper and more informative to keep the sculpture in Travis Park and also pit in individual ones for the people killed in the nueces massacre and colored people lynched.. maybe the german texans killed by the “noble” confederate traitors can be lying around on the ground in piles as they were shot fleeing to Mexico. The other memorials can be people hanging from the trees. Heritage is important. Those who forget the past (or distort it like people who refuse to acknowledge that slavery was the only reason for States Rights to even be an issue) might learn something.
It is time to take down the monument. Because of the threats of violence against individuals, the City should take it down in the middle of the night and let a new day dawn. Besides being a shrine to horrific violence which was slavery and its aftermath of racism, it is an honoring of traitors and an affront to the women and men who continue to serve this country, especially in a city like San Antonio.
This statue and others like it are an affront to them and to the women and men who continue to serve this country.
The statue also represent current racism and violence.
We understand the notion that some people have that we should honor the Confederate dead (statues, despite claims to the contrary, do not usually educate; they are there to honor) but we must move on. These are monuments to current racist and violent attitudes.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Michael. I think writing an article like this takes some degree of courage 🙂
I wonder if you’re being sincere when you say, “But immediate removal is the only morally acceptable course of action in our current national moment.” Your article seems replete with hyperbole, so I presume much is for the sake of getting more article views and making your point.
Surely a person as educated as yourself can’t believe this statement to be true. Asserting that the removal of a statue, which many obviously take umbrage with, is a morally mandatory and absolutely urgent next step in healing the wounds that are currently debilitating our country seems audacious.
This is a complex issue with intense emotions on both sides, and it behooves us to make a circumspect, calculated decision. Removing the statue may or may not be our best option, but to propose the statue should have already been removed and that our leaders are “feckless” is misleading at best.
My understanding of your view is that this topic doesn’t require a conversation, but you’ll have a hard time persuading anyone with that mindset. If your goal is not in fact to persuade, and you intend to communicate only with those that agree with your point of view, then you can disregard my previous statement.
Again, I appreciate your point of view and you taking the time to share it. I hope that more citizens are willing to discuss their concerns, and explore multiple potential resolutions, before coming to a capricious conclusion.
The soft approach doesn’t work, it only adds smoke. In fact, racism is only resurging, and coming back even stronger than before. It’s time for us to act forcibly. It’s nice to debate things from your vantage point of privilege, but people are dying. Freedom of speech matters, but hate speech doesn’t warrant equal consideration. We didn’t sit with the Nazis to hear out their concerns. We destroyed them.
Yes we did, but, you don’t see the Germans rushing to disassemble the concentration camp at Auschwitz. They may be deeply hurt and embarrassed by those memories, but they are determined not to let it be forgotten. Why? So history won’t repeat itself. Removing monuments is cosmetic at best. The mindset is what needs to be destroyed. Get your priorities straight. Skin heads, Aryan and white supremacists don’t need these monuments to perpetuate themselves. Just the arrogance and hate that drives them. Its with equal arrogance and hate that we would choose to forget the pain and mistakes of our past. None of us grow into adulthood without them. Neither would this nation heal without it’s past. So the markers remind you of injustice. Good. Now attack the injustice and make sure it doesn’t get avfoothold again. Time much better spent.