Commissioners used ‘lazy thinking’ on Confederate monument

To my neighbors in Manatee County: Are you satisfied with the behavior of our county commission?

On Thursday in the dark of night, a 4/3 majority made the decision to remove a monument that had been sitting quietly on the grounds of the Manatee County courthouse. There has never been a complaint lodged against the monument for sneaking up on anyone and shouting boo.

For 93 years the monument reminded us that citizens of the county had sacrificed their lives for the land they called home. The message called out from the history of a horrible war that had divided our country for six years and then brought us back together as a stronger fairer country. For 85 years, the wounds of the slavery had been in progress of healing and until eight years ago was slowly advancing.

Since the past election, violent splinter groups, many of which are funded by sources outside of this country, have been fomenting discord to damage our society. Our county commissioners have used lazy thinking. They have fallen in line with outside agitators working to erase our country’s history. Disrupting our history is part of a stratagem to erode our society.

Why would anyone want to do this? There is a saying that goes “he who controls the past controls the present and he who controls the present controls the future.”

It is a hard sell to many who aren’t examining the efforts of so many entities who have pulled out all the stops to destroy the U.S., but it is happening. Our first lines of defense are our commissioners, and those in office can’t fulfill their oath to us if interlopers easily sway them.

This story was originally published August 26, 2017 at 1:11 PM with the headline "Commissioners used ‘lazy thinking’ on Confederate monument."