How do you confront the lunacy of the anti-American leftists intent on removing American monuments? Well, if you are President Donald John Trump, you build more of them. Hence, an executive order establishing A National Garden of American Heroes:
[Executive Order] – By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered as follows:
Section 1. Purpose. America owes its present greatness to its past sacrifices. Because the past is always at risk of being forgotten, monuments will always be needed to honor those who came before. Since the time of our founding, Americans have raised monuments to our greatest citizens. In 1784, the legislature of Virginia commissioned the earliest statue of George Washington, a “monument of affection and gratitude” to a man who “unit[ed] to the endowment[s] of the Hero the virtues of the Patriot” and gave to the world “an Immortal Example of true Glory.” I Res. H. Del. (June 24, 1784). In our public parks and plazas, we have erected statues of great Americans who, through acts of wisdom and daring, built and preserved for us a republic of ordered liberty.
These statues are silent teachers in solid form of stone and metal. They preserve the memory of our American story and stir in us a spirit of responsibility for the chapters yet unwritten. These works of art call forth gratitude for the accomplishments and sacrifices of our exceptional fellow citizens who, despite their flaws, placed their virtues, their talents, and their lives in the service of our Nation. These monuments express our noblest ideals: respect for our ancestors, love of freedom, and striving for a more perfect union. They are works of beauty, created as enduring tributes. In preserving them, we show reverence for our past, we dignify our present, and we inspire those who are to come. To build a monument is to ratify our shared national project.
To destroy a monument is to desecrate our common inheritance. In recent weeks, in the midst of protests across America, many monuments have been vandalized or destroyed. Some local governments have responded by taking their monuments down. Among others, monuments to Christopher Columbus, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Francis Scott Key, Ulysses S. Grant, leaders of the abolitionist movement, the first all-volunteer African-American regiment of the Union Army in the Civil War, and American soldiers killed in the First and Second World Wars have been vandalized, destroyed, or removed.
These statues are not ours alone, to be discarded at the whim of those inflamed by fashionable political passions; they belong to generations that have come before us and to generations yet unborn. My Administration will not abide an assault on our collective national memory. In the face of such acts of destruction, it is our responsibility as Americans to stand strong against this violence, and to peacefully transmit our great national story to future generations through newly commissioned monuments to American heroes.
Sec. 2. Task Force for Building and Rebuilding Monuments to American Heroes. (a) There is hereby established the Interagency Task Force for Building and Rebuilding Monuments to American Heroes (Task Force). The Task Force shall be chaired by the Secretary of the Interior (Secretary), and shall include the following additional members:
(i) the Administrator of General Services (Administrator);
(ii) the Chairperson of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA);
(iii) the Chairperson of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH);
(iv) the Chairman of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP); and
(v) any officers or employees of any executive department or agency (agency) designated by the President or the Secretary.
(b) The Department of the Interior shall provide funding and administrative support as may be necessary for the performance and functions of the Task Force. The Secretary shall designate an official of the Department of the Interior to serve as the Executive Director of the Task Force, responsible for coordinating its day-to-day activities.
(c) The Chairpersons of the NEA and NEH and the Chairman of the ACHP shall establish cross-department initiatives within the NEA, NEH, and ACHP, respectively, to advance the purposes of the Task Force and this order and to coordinate relevant agency operations with the Task Force.
Sec. 3. National Garden of American Heroes. (a) It shall be the policy of the United States to establish a statuary park named the National Garden of American Heroes (National Garden).
(b) Within 60 days of the date of this order, the Task Force shall submit a report to the President through the Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy that proposes options for the creation of the National Garden, including potential locations for the site. In identifying options, the Task Force shall:
(i) strive to open the National Garden expeditiously;
(ii) evaluate the feasibility of creating the National Garden through a variety of potential avenues, including existing agency authorities and appropriations; and
(iii) consider the availability of authority to encourage and accept the donation or loan of statues by States, localities, civic organizations, businesses, religious organizations, and individuals, for display at the National Garden.
(c) In addition to the requirements of subsection 3(b) of this order, the proposed options for the National Garden should adhere to the criteria described in subsections (c)(i) through (c)(vi) of this section.
(i) The National Garden should be composed of statues, including statues of John Adams, Susan B. Anthony, Clara Barton, Daniel Boone, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, Henry Clay, Davy Crockett, Frederick Douglass, Amelia Earhart, Benjamin Franklin, Billy Graham, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, Martin Luther King, Jr., Abraham Lincoln, Douglas MacArthur, Dolley Madison, James Madison, Christa McAuliffe, Audie Murphy, George S. Patton, Jr., Ronald Reagan, Jackie Robinson, Betsy Ross, Antonin Scalia, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Harriet Tubman, Booker T. Washington, George Washington, and Orville and Wilbur Wright.
(ii) The National Garden should be opened for public access prior to the 250th anniversary of the proclamation of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 2026.
(iii) Statues should depict historically significant Americans, as that term is defined in section 7 of this order, who have contributed positively to America throughout our history. Examples include: the Founding Fathers, those who fought for the abolition of slavery or participated in the underground railroad, heroes of the United States Armed Forces, recipients of the Congressional Medal of Honor or Presidential Medal of Freedom, scientists and inventors, entrepreneurs, civil rights leaders, missionaries and religious leaders, pioneers and explorers, police officers and firefighters killed or injured in the line of duty, labor leaders, advocates for the poor and disadvantaged, opponents of national socialism or international socialism, former Presidents of the United States and other elected officials, judges and justices, astronauts, authors, intellectuals, artists, and teachers. None will have lived perfect lives, but all will be worth honoring, remembering, and studying.
(iv) All statues in the National Garden should be lifelike or realistic representations of the persons they depict, not abstract or modernist representations.
(v) The National Garden should be located on a site of natural beauty that enables visitors to enjoy nature, walk among the statues, and be inspired to learn about great figures of America’s history. The site should be proximate to at least one major population center, and the site should not cause significant disruption to the local community.
(vi) As part of its civic education mission, the National Garden should also separately maintain a collection of statues for temporary display at appropriate sites around the United States that are accessible to the general public.
Kitt,
No problem. Thanks. But would there be a difference if the firing on Sumter and the supply ships made a difference had men been killed?
One of the points I hope I’m making is how divisive this whole train of thought has become. The war was a long time ago and the dead should be left to their rest. Their monuments are subject to the winds of politics, I’m afraid, but the current desire to destroy the past for its wrongs, or, conversely, to justify those wrongs at any price just leads to grief.
I often use irony and low-key rhetorical stunts to make my points and for that, I plead guilty and will (try to) refrain from such in the future.
I would prefer to change some points of view, but, if that is outside my ability, so be it. Keep your thoughts and maintain an honest heart (even if in error, as I’m sure mine is sometimes).
All the best,
MAKAYA
@MAKAYA:
What would have prevented Lincoln from trying to reverse the decisions of some of the Southern states to secede? Nothing. He could have sent each, and every, state governor a letter saying “What can we do to remedy this situation?” He did not and instead of answering that question, you refer to his rallying “militias” to take on the South.
Let us not forget that at the time of the calling for “militias” to serve to quell the “rebellion”, Congress was not in session and Lincoln did not have the authority to declare war without Congressional approval. Lincoln, using the 1795 Act, allowed the “militias” to serve for 90 days or 30 days after Congress convened.
What Lincoln did, according to many historians, was unconstitutional.
Are you also warmed to know that I realize your comment was a tacit insult toward me? Because it was, and it was for no valid reason.
@MAKAYA: We are good.
RIP Charlie Daniels he passed away at the age of 83 after suffering a hemorrhagic stroke.
I was lucky enough to be at one of his concerts years ago.
Retire05
What if…? What an endless cycle is one so allows. Here’s a question for you:
Article I Section 9(4)
“No bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law denying or impairing the right of property in negro slaves shall be passed.”
Do you agree?
MAKAYA
p.s. I am sorry if my light chiding was understood by you as an insult. Your misunderstanding of to whom I was responding early on made me think it was your ego driving your comment. Please note 47, above. I was chiding Nan G, not you (and no links had been asked for) and you felt obligated to descend to some weird lower circle concerning Cliff Notes or something. You must forgive my misunderstanding that you were injecting your ego into the conversation. My error.
By the way, did you get the North Carolina long-range cannon situation cleared up? And what about E. Ruffin? No hothead, that good ol’ boy.
M
@Greg:
You’re assertion was that Governor Noem said something that she didn’t. Your were caught spreading fake news and thusly shown to be the kind of person that disinformation works on. The Left has you fully indoctrinated and spreading lies.
There was no observation. Noem said what she said. Trump said what he said. The text and video footage is clear.
What you distract from is the also clear stance and message those two put forward.
There is a coordinated effort to topple statues as a way of destroying our connection to the past, and thusly destroying our current form of government.
Your parsing words with the “coordinated” idea, and you know it.
YOU GOT CAUGHT READING A HEADLINE AND NOT READING AN ARTICLE, AND YOU LOOK LIKE THE FUCKING IDIOT LEFTIST DRONE YOU ARE, BENT ON COMMISSIONING DOMESTIC TERRORISM, REVOLUTION, AND GENOCIDE.
You may know what you are doing, but most likely not.
Retire05,
Apologies. You did ask for links. I overlooked that.
@MAKAYA: Do you have a link to any copy of the US Constitution that says that?
My copies, multiple copies, all say this:
@Nathan Blue:
Greg is the consummate definition of an imbecile.
Nan:
It is from the CONFEDERATE Constitution.
Find it anywhere on the web.
Respectfully.
MAKAYA
Nan,
Please re-read my comment bearing in mind I was asking if anyone could support the Confederation Constitution.
All the best.
MAKAYA