A statue honoring Confederate soldiers will be removed from the grounds of the University of Louisville in Kentucky as the debate about its removal rages on.
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Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer said in a statement, “There are practical reasons for why this statue should not be here — like the traffic complications it causes turning in and out of the beautiful new Speed. There are civic reasons for why this statue should not be here — like citizens objecting to having a monument to the Confederacy placed on public land. I recognize that some people say this monument should stay because it is part of our history. But I also appreciate that we can make our own history. The stain of slavery and racism that this monument represents for many, many people has no place in a compassionate, forward leaning city.”
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While many support the removal of the statue, there are those who believe that it should be kept and used as a reminder of the horrible mistakes from America’s past. Graduate student Benjamin Gies told WHAS, “Let this monument serve to anyone who seeks to divide the United States racially that we have been there and done that, and we disapprove of it. Let it stand as a monument to the 600,000 dead Americans who fought to end slavery.”
However, Dr. Ricky Jones, who has fought for 20 years to have the statue taken down, is elated by the news and doesn’t see why anyone would want to remember soldiers who were traitors to their country. “The confederacy was a group of traitors. They lost the war, so why would you memorialize them?”
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A final destination for the statue has not been disclosed, but once it is removed it will be cleaned and placed in storage until further plans are made.
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