Category: news

bookmark_borderConfederate statue sanctuary in the works in Texas

Posted on by Marissa

Back in 2017, the city government of San Antonio, Texas – determining, apparently, that people who are different from the majority should no longer be able to feel welcome in public spaces or be represented in public art – decided to remove its Confederate monument. Like all similar instances, this decision was immoral, despicable, and an abomination that should never have even been considered as an option, let alone carried out. 

However, the reason why I am posting about this now is because there is one recent piece of good news to come out of this terrible situation. The city has agreed to donate the monument to an organization called the SS American Memorial Foundation, which plans to display it in a privately owned, but publicly accessible, park. After spending 8 years in storage in an undisclosed location, the statue will finally see the light of day. Craig Russell, the founder and operator of this organization, said that he plans to collect Confederate statues from across Texas and assemble them in the park, which will be located in the city of Seguin, Texas.

As Valor Memorial Park pointed out in this Facebook post, Russell’s park seems like it will aim to do for Texas what Valor has done in North Carolina. None of this takes away from the horror and pain of the atrocities that have been committed, but the prospect that some statues will find loving and respectful homes provides a glimmer of hope in what would otherwise be a completely demoralizing situation. This is an exciting new development, and I’m looking forward to seeing the park take shape. 

bookmark_borderConfederate statues from Wilmington, NC find a new home at Valor Park

Posted on by Marissa

Valor Memorial Park is getting two new statues!

In 2020, the government of Wilmington, North Carolina – determining, apparently, that people who are different from the majority should no longer feel welcome in public spaces or be represented in public art – decided to remove their two Confederate monuments. The statues, one honoring Confederate soldiers in general and the other honoring Confederate senator and attorney general George Davis, were held in storage for over 5 years. On September 19, the city reached an agreement to transfer ownership of the statues to Valor Memorial Park, a privately owned park that is dedicated to honoring all veterans and that currently has 3 beautiful Confederate statues. Despite how despicable, appalling, and immoral the actions of Wilmington’s city government have been, this is a small piece of good news to come out of a terrible situation.

As this post from Dixie Forever states, the statues are finally being relocated to a loving home.

And as Valor Park wrote in a social media post: “They are now home. These memorials will be preserved and restored with honor. Thank you to Courage and Sacrifice for their partnership. That partnership will continue as these are restored, cleaned, and repaired. They wont be hidden and will be open to the public.”

If you are interested in purchasing merchandise or making a donation to support the care and upkeep of the statues, you can do so here.

bookmark_borderCurtis Sliwa calls for new Columbus statue in Staten Island

Posted on by Marissa

Curtis Sliwa, the Republican candidate for mayor of New York City, has said that he is looking to have a Christopher Columbus statue erected in Staten Island! Sliwa remarked at a campaign rally on Saturday, September 27, that Staten Island is the most Italian of all the boroughs of New York, yet has never had a statue of Columbus. Sliwa unfortunately doesn’t have a good chance of winning the mayoral race. However, it is excellent that such a high-profile political candidate has not only expressed his support of Columbus statues, but has actually called for the creation of a new one. Perhaps even if Sliwa loses the mayoral race, he will still be able to make the statue a reality. That is something that I would absolutely love to see.

Source: We The Italians

bookmark_borderNew Italian American mural in Springfield, MA

Posted on by Marissa

On August 28, a new mural was unveiled in Springfield, MA. It adorns the wall of the Italian Cultural Center and depicts four generations of Italian Americans sharing a meal together, ranging from an old man to a baby girl. Painted by Eric Okdeh in collaboration with the organization, Common Wealth Murals, it is titled, “Sunday Dinner.” Interestingly, the people in the mural are based on real-life members of the Italian Cultural Center. 

When I first saw this news story and glimpsed the accompanying photo, I thought the mural was nice, but not particularly significant. As an Italian American, I enjoy seeing things related to my heritage. But the statue genocide of the past five years has affected me so deeply that it is pretty much all that I can think about or care about. This mural wasn’t doing anything to combat the erasure of Christopher Columbus or the Confederacy from our public spaces, I thought, so I didn’t really care about it all that much.

But then I looked at the photo more closely. My eyes went to the stained-glass window behind the woman who is standing and holding a bowl of pasta. Specifically, the bottom right panel of the stained-glass window. Guess who I saw depicted in the stained-glass window?

Needless to say, I like this mural a lot. This mural represents a new depiction of Christopher Columbus in public art. And given the horrific events of the past five years, this a very significant thing indeed. 

Check it out here via We The Italians

bookmark_borderFlorida plans to end ALL vaccine mandates

Posted on by Marissa

The state of Florida is planning to end vaccine mandates. Not just covid vaccine mandates, but all of them. That is what Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo and Governor Ron DeSantis announced in a press conference this past Wednesday. 

“Every last one of them is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery,” Ladapo said. “Who am I, as a government or anyone else, to tell you what you should put in your body? I don’t have that right.”

I could not agree more strongly. Indeed, requiring people to get a medical procedure demonstrates complete and utter disdain. And indeed, no one has the right to tell another person what they should put in their body.

This is absolutely fantastic news for kids in Florida, because it means that the government will no longer force them to undergo medical procedures in order to attend school. But despite the fact that this is objectively fantastic news, some people (unsurprisingly but wrongly) are unhappy about it. 

On the Fox News social media post regarding this news story, the most common reactions were “like” and “love,” but the third most common was the “angry” emoji. Yes, nearly a thousand people are apparently angry about kids not being forced to undergo medical procedures against their will. How a lack of forcing people to undergo medical procedures against their will could possibly make someone angry is incomprehensible and demonstrates the complete moral bankruptcy of such a person.

On a somewhat similar note, Fox News’s medical analyst, Dr. Marc Siegel, claimed that “school mandates make sense” because they are the only way to achieve herd immunity, in which “those who can’t get that vaccine because they are immunocompromised are protected by those around them.” This way of thinking is wrong because it focuses solely on the consequences of policies, rather than the intrinsic morality (or lack thereof) of the policies themselves. Perhaps vaccine mandates are the only way to achieve herd immunity, but this is irrelevant to the question of whether mandates should exist. Vaccine mandates violate people’s rights, and therefore are wrong, and need to be abolished, regardless of any positive results that they achieve. Violating people’s rights is never okay. Similarly, perhaps vaccine mandates enable people who can’t get the vaccine to be protected by those around them, but being protected from disease by the people around you is not a right that anyone has. Declining medical intervention, on the other hand, is a right that people have, and vaccine mandates violate it. The desire for immunocompromised people to be protected by those around them does not supersede the right to decline medical intervention.

Dr. Susan Kressley, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said that abolishing vaccine mandates “will put children in Florida public schools at higher risk for getting sick.” This is another example of a fact that may very well be true, but is irrelevant to the question of whether or not we should have vaccine mandates. Yes, abolishing vaccine mandates may increase children’s risk of getting sick, but you know what else it will do? Stop children from being forced to undergo medical procedures against their will. And given that forcing people to undergo medical procedures violates their rights, it’s kind of important to stop doing that. Similarly to what I stated above, the desire to reduce kids’ risk of getting sick does not supersede kids’ right to decline medical intervention.

In conclusion, the decision of the state of Florida to end vaccine mandates is excellent news because it means that children’s fundamental rights will actually be respected. And there’s nothing more important than that. 

bookmark_borderGood news from West Point

Posted on by Marissa

Another bit of good news for the historical figures who were subjected to the Biden administration’s brutal and heartless campaign of obliteration: the portrait of Robert E. Lee has just been returned to West Point!

The 20-foot-tall painting, showing the legendary general at the beginning of the Civil War, was removed from the library at West Point Military Academy by intolerant bullies in 2022. Under orders from the Trump administration, it is now back. 

Any small bit of reversal of the historical figure genocide is a beautiful thing to see, and this is no exception. 

Source: Newsmax

See also previous posts from Dixie Forever, Monuments Across Dixie.

bookmark_borderNews anchor Kate Merrill sues CBS for anti-white discrimination

Posted on by Marissa

Kate Merrill, a news anchor for WBZ News (the Boston affiliate of CBS), has filed a federal lawsuit against her former employer for anti-white discrimination.

According to Fox News, back in 2021, parent company CBS called WBZ “too white” (a blatantly racist statement), “the least diverse station for on air talent” (why is a station’s proportion of non-white people being equated with diversity?), and “the whitest of all their stations” (as if this is somehow a bad thing).

As part of the resulting push for “DEI” (which in reality is anything but), WBZ hired a black meteorologist named Jason Mikell and laid off a white meteorologist named Zack Green. (This sounds like a blatant instance of racial discrimination.)

Subsequently, Mikell made an inappropriate sexual comment about Merrill on air. (This sounds like pretty egregious misconduct.) Merrill attempted to remain on civil terms with Mikell despite this. One day, she texted him to correct his mispronunciation of the town Concord (sounds reasonable), and he responded by loudly, aggressively, and unprofessionally yelling at her in the studio (sounds highly unreasonable).

Other colleagues reported the sexual comment to HR, and Merrill herself reported the aggressive yelling. But no one did anything to discipline Mikell for his conduct. Instead, Merrill was informed that she was the subject of an investigation. Mikell had filed a complaint against her for having “treated coworkers differently because of their race.” Her crime? Allegedly being critical of Mikell and – gasp! – failing to ask him about his weekends. As punishment for these horrendous deeds (sarcasm by me, in case that wasn’t obvious), Merrill was demoted from weekday morning co-anchor, to weekend nights. Advised by colleagues and union leaders that the demotion was career-ending, she opted to resign, but was barred, due to a non-competition provision, from working in the field for over one year.

The lawsuit states: “Merrill vehemently challenged the validity of Defendant Mikell’s allegations and denied (and denies) any of her actions, inactions, or comments were as described or motivated by overt racism or unconscious bias. Based on the falsity and/or and misleading nature of Defendant Mikell’s allegations, Defendant Mikell acted with malice and/or improper motive in lodging a complaint against Ms. Merrill.”

I agree with this lawsuit 100%. WBZ’s decision to hire Mikell and lay off Green was discriminatory. Mikell’s actions towards Merrill were mean, inappropriate, and wrong, and his decision to file a complaint against her was completely baseless. The station’s decision to discipline Merrill, and not to discipline Mikell, was absolutely egregious. In short, both the station collectively and Mikell individually, acted unjustly, wrongly, and immorally. They should be ashamed of themselves, and they deserve the harshest possible punishment.

Mikell’s actions, and WBZ’s response of declining to punish him and instead punishing his victim, exemplify the trend in our society in which black people are able to do anything, no matter how wrong, bad, or harmful to others, with impunity. Because if a white person criticizes or complains about a black person in any way, no matter how justified and no matter how completely unrelated to the person’s race, we are accused of being racist, and we are considered to be the problem. Thereby creating a society in which white people are allowed to be criticized, and black people aren’t. If that isn’t an example of systemic racism, then I don’t know what is. It’s despicable that so many people go on and on about the existence of “white privilege” when the opposite is actually the case.

I remember Kate Merrill from the days when I was actually able to watch the local news without being subjected to PTSD attacks thanks to DEI supporters’ violent destruction of everything that makes my life worth living (but I digress). I hadn’t known about her departure from the station or the reasons behind it until I came across this Fox News article. I hope that she succeeds in her lawsuit.

bookmark_borderPossible good news on Christopher Columbus statue in Columbus, Ohio

Posted on by Marissa

The statue of Christopher Columbus in the city that bears his name, Columbus, Ohio, could potentially be coming back to public view. 

The organization “Reimagining Columbus” (I don’t really consider this an appropriate name for such an organization, but that will have to be explained fully in another blog post if I ever have the time and energy to write one) has unveiled its plan for a new park that includes the statue. The park, unfortunately, will not be centered on the statue. And it will include informational text about Columbus, which unfortunately has a high likelihood of being disparaging, somewhat defeating the purpose of returning the statue to public display. Visitors will be able to reach the statue after walking along a path lined with art and inscriptions and, interestingly, will be able to view the statue either by looking up at him from the ground, or from a hill where they could look him in the eyes. 

All in all, this does not sound like an ideal situation, but it is better than nothing.

Source: We The Italians

bookmark_borderA new batch of statues arrives…

Posted on by Marissa

Yet another bit of positive news regarding statues: a new batch of Confederate statues has arrived in the United States, thanks to the organization Monuments Across Dixie. 

They posted a reel of going to pick up the new monuments here, and a picture of the crates containing them here.

The new statues include one of Admiral Raphael Semmes, a heartwarming picture of which can be seen in this post from the SCV camp named after him. 

More details to come on the rest of the statues…