State Auditor Shad White (Photo by MS OSA Facebook)
- The city of Jackson is reportedly preparing to remove the statue of Andrew Jackson, its namesake. Auditor Shad White says the move is part of an extremist effort to erase history.
Yesterday, the Clarion Ledger reported that the city of Jackson plans to remove the statue of Andrew Jackson that currently sits in front of City Hall.
This is crazy. the city is named jackson, after all. If Jackson is such a reprehensible figure, why keep the statue? Why not change the name of the city? Why not rename Washington, DC? And then tear down the Washington Monument? Where does cultural destruction end?
For those who say Jackson did bad things, name someone throughout history who is perfect. I only know one man who was without defect and lived 2,000 years ago. Even civil rights heroes had his flaws, because we are all human.
I also imagine that liberals who hate Jackson can’t name the important political, military, and social contributions Jackson made – the reasons the city is named after him. They want us to forget about his corruption investigations and the new standards for tracking taxpayer money that he instituted. They would erase his initiatives to reduce waste and the fact that he balanced the federal budget for the first time in history. They want us to ignore his position against the Bank of the United States when there were accusations that only the rich and connected benefited from the Bank’s loans.
The truth is, I seriously doubt these liberals have taken the opportunity to weigh Jackson’s legacy, if they can accurately describe it.
Of course, liberals seeking to put Jackson’s statue in the dumpster probably believe themselves to be perfect: that history will look back and find no fault with these pure-hearted public servants. They say there is no defect between them.
These are the same people who tell us that men should be allowed to compete in women’s sports or that boys should be given irreversible hormone treatment. And now they’ve come to tell us who should survive their story’s barn fire.
The effort to erase the memory of historical figures from our nation’s history is simply cultural Marxism. When Mao brought his communist Cultural Revolution to China, his followers set out to destroy the Four Olds (“old ideas, old customs, old culture and old habits”). The communists renamed roads, destroyed historical sites, and even exhumed the bodies of controversial figures from their graves. He became violent.
We need to stop this before it gets out of control. Especially given our state’s laws. Historic statues like this cannot be moved except in specific circumstances under our laws. The Clarion Ledger report suggests that the city has already decided to move the statue without taking these steps and considering the historical implications of moving a statue of the city’s namesake. As State Auditor, I must point out that the city must be careful in using taxpayer resources to move the statue if they have not followed the law.
While we wait to see what the city will do, let this serve as proof: If you’ve ever heard anyone say that the left-wing people of Mississippi are a bunch of moderates, you haven’t been paying attention. They are extremists.
