Confederate Treason Statue Escorted Off Premises Of Charlottesville County Court House

Also this is your open thread!

Today, a Confederate statue in Charlottesville, Virginia — the site of the 2017 Unite The Right rally that led to the brutal murder of counterprotester Heather Heyer — was taken down. The statue, titled "At Ready," featured a Confederate soldier complete with cannon and cannonball accessories, "ready" to murder some damn yankees in hopes of preserving the ability of people who were very likely quite a bit richer than he was to own human beings.

It was previously in front of the Charlottesville county courthouse, and will now be somewhere else. We don't really care where, because fuck that statue.

There was a live Facebook feed of the de-statuing, which is apparently still going and which you can watch here .

The "At Ready" statue was not one of the statues at the center of the Unite The Right rally — those statutes, one of Robert E. Lee and another of Stonewall Jackson, are unfortunately still up. The city has voted to remove them, but they are at the center of a lawsuit filed by some fans of the Confederacy who would like to keep them up, so that will take some time.

Via NBC News:  

"There has been a robust, community-driven process to bring us to this moment," Ned Gallaway, chair of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, said in a press release of the removal that was streamed on Facebook Live. The county board voted last month to remove the statue in front of the county courthouse.

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam said in a pre-recorded statement that it was a "historic day" as the state continues efforts "to be more inclusive" and to acknowledge that "racial discrimination is rooted in the laws that ruled our Commonwealth."

"As we reckon with Virginia's past," said Northam, "symbols do matter."

You know, the Right likes to pretend this is all about our history and how they just want the statues because they want to preserve history because they are just intellectuals who feel it is important for us all to remember our history and not forget it. But there is a whole lot of American history that they would very much prefer we all forget! So much, really! There's a lot of American history that we don't learn in school on account of the fact that we would not be too patriotic if we did, which would make it super difficult to recruit soldiers the next time they wanted to have a stupid war.

Like, really, they should be so grateful that all we're doing is tearing down their precious treason statues. Because really, a whole lot of "divisiveness" in this country is prevented by allowing Republicans their short memories with regard to history, including recent history. They like a little rewrite, a little glossing over of certain events, that doesn't make them look so bad, that makes the United States look pretty good. And many Democrats, particularly those who are less petty than I am, allow them to have that in the name of "civility." But they don't have to. We don't have to. And things could get very, very unpleasant for them were we to start bringing certain things up more. 

Anyway, that seemed like a nice thing to end the day on, so you all enjoy this nice open thread we've made for you!

[ NBC ]

 Do your Amazon shopping through this link, because reasons .