Tag: statue genocide

bookmark_borderMy open letter to Gov. Youngkin regarding HB1699

Posted on by Marissa
Unfortunately, bigots and bullies in the Virginia legislature – who believe, apparently, that everyone who is different from the norm should be obliterated from existence – passed a bill known as HB1699. You can read about this disgusting, unconscionable, and immoral bill here. (I guess I don’t make reading about it seem very appealing when I describe it that way, but describing it with milder language would be inaccurate.)
I wrote the below email to Governor Glenn Youngkin, encouraging him to veto this bill:
Dear Governor Youngkin:
I am writing to respectfully ask that you please veto bill HB1699. This bill is mean-spirited, cruel, discriminatory, and hurtful. I am on the autism spectrum, and my special interest is history. What makes history so important to me is that it includes stories and perspectives from a wide array of different people. Confederate history is part of history. People who fought for the Confederacy deserve to be honored just as much as anyone else does. Their stories deserve to be told, and their history preserved, just as much as anyone else’s. It is unconscionable that, after years of the most brutal and vicious attacks imaginable on Confederate historical figures, a bill would be introduced that would hurt lovers of Confederate history even more than we have already been hurt. Bill HB1699 would personally hurt me as an autistic person who loves history. It’s beyond upsetting that a bill such as this would even be under consideration. Please, please veto this horrible bill.
Sincerely,
Marissa
I highly encourage you to do the same. You can contact Governor Youngkin by…
Email: glenn.youngkin@governor.virginia.gov
Phone: (804) 786-2211
Or mail:
Office of the Governor
P.O. Box 1475
Richmond, VA 23218

bookmark_borderPhotos of the aftermath of the statue genocide

Posted on by Marissa

Judy Smith recently posted some photos of a drive down Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia. These photos are heartbreaking. The one thought that echoes in my mind when looking at images like these is: How could people possibly think that this is a good thing?

Where there once were beautiful statues, there is now nothingness. Where there once was a celebration of history, there is now meaninglessness, purposelessness, and emptiness. Where people who are different from the norm were once accepted, now we are shamed, condemned, attacked, viciously hurt, excluded. Where life was once worth living, now it is not.

“We hate you,” the city of Richmond says to me, as well as to all people who are different.

The city of Richmond, like so many other cities across the United States, was completely ruined. Deliberately. On purpose. People actually thought that this was a good thing to do. How? How could they think this? It is completely incomprehensible to me.

These images depict the sickening result of the statue genocide. Statues of Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, Jeb Stuart, and Matthew Fontaine Maury are supposed to stand on this street, where now there are only vacant expanses of dirt. I will feel rage and grief at what happened to these statues for the rest of my life. I will never fully heal, as long as these hideous wounds remain in the landscape of our country. What happened to these statues was wrong. These statues, these historical figures, and the fact that what happened to them was wrong, must never be forgotten.

bookmark_borderYou know what’s “pure hell,” Tim Walz?

Posted on by Marissa

According to Fox News, Minnesota governor and vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz described he and Kamala Harris’s loss as “pure hell” and said that Democrats are “fatigued.”

You know what’s pure hell? Watching the man that you love be lynched. Seeing the noose tightening around his neck, and the mob of angry bigots pulling on the rope. Hearing the sickening thud as his massive bronze body falls to the ground. Watching his murderers celebrate their “accomplishment.” Watching them stand on the pedestal where the man you love stood just seconds ago, their hands raised in sickening triumph. Watching them pose for pictures with their knees on his neck as he lies, pitifully, face down on the pavement.

Seeing police officers lined up, off to the side, watching this horrifying scene unfold, doing nothing to intervene because they were instructed not to. Hearing this atrocity – a demonstration of pure hatred for you because you are different from the majority – characterized as “understandable” and an act of “civil disobedience.” Hearing that the main perpetrator was released with no punishment, and that the other perpetrators weren’t arrested or charged to begin with.

Having to somehow continue existing, year after year, in a society that considers the above scenario to be completely acceptable. A society that doesn’t care about your pain, that doesn’t care about your feelings, that doesn’t care about your viewpoint, that doesn’t care about your perspective.

This is pure hell, Tim Walz. This is what I’ve experienced. And you caused it.

bookmark_borderFantastic news re: 250th anniversary, statue garden, and protecting statues!

Posted on by Marissa

On Wednesday, President Trump signed a truly awesome executive order.

The order establishes a task force to plan an “extraordinary celebration” in honor of America’s 250th anniversary, on July 4, 2026. If Trump’s campaign speeches are any indication, the festivities will begin on Memorial Day 2025 and will include a “Great American State Fair” in Iowa, and a “Patriot Games” for high school athletes from across the country.

Additionally, the executive order re-establishes the plan to create a National Garden of American Heroes, a statue garden filled with statues of 250 historical figures. The order goes so far as to commission artists for the first 100 statues, indicating that the statue garden isn’t just an abstract hope, but is actually on the path towards becoming reality. “The National Garden will honor American heroism after dozens of monuments to Americans, including Presidents and Founding Fathers, have toppled or destroyed and never restored,” said a press release.

Speaking of statues that have been topped or destroyed and never restored, the executive order reinstates Trump’s order from 2020 that was aimed at protecting existing statues from destruction at the hands of bigots and bullies. This policy directs the Attorney General to prosecute people and groups responsible for vandalizing and/or destroying statues to the fullest extent of the law. It also withholds federal funding from state and local law enforcement agencies that fail to do the same. The AP describes this order as “reviving efforts to harshly punish those who vandalize or destroy existing statues and monuments.” This is true, and there is absolutely nothing bad about it, because harsh punishment is exactly what such people deserve.

As alluded to above, you might recall that both the plans for the statue garden and the policy strengthening punishments for anti-statue bullies existed previously thanks to an executive order that Trump signed during a dark time that feels simultaneously like yesterday and like a million years ago. (I blogged about it here.) Unfortunately, within his first few days of taking office, Biden mean-spiritedly and cruelly signed an executive order rescinding both of these policies, thereby cancelling plans for the statue garden and deliberately declining to punish the people in our country who are the most deserving of punishment. Although this new executive order doesn’t undo the unspeakable atrocities that were done, I am heartened that Trump has once again chosen to stand up for the statues.

I will never stop fighting for statues, I will never stop advocating on their behalf, I will never forget or forgive what happened to them, and I will never stop writing about them. This is what is truly important. This is what matters. And I’m truly glad that President Trump, to a significant extent, feels the same.

Sources: Newsmax, MSN/AP

bookmark_borderStatues are what Selena Gomez should be crying about

Posted on by Marissa

I recently saw this Instagram post from Benny Johnson about the video of Selena Gomez crying about the Trump administration’s deportations of illegal immigrants. Johnson, and various other right-leaning people whom he quotes in his post, argue that Gomez should instead be crying about all of the people killed by fentanyl overdoses, the people murdered and/or raped by illegal immigrants, and the 300,000 migrant children who have gone missing.

While I don’t agree with the sexist stereotypes in the post regarding which ages and genders of people tend to be the victims of which types of crimes (people of either gender and any age can be raped, and people of either gender can overdose on fentanyl), nor do I agree with the characterization of Gomez’s video as a “meltdown” (that’s insulting to autistic people because a meltdown is a term used to describe an autistic person’s involuntary reaction to a sensorily or otherwise overwhelming situation), I do think that the post makes some valid points. 

Riley Gaines, one of the people quoted in Johnson’s post, points out: “Laken Riley was one of many. Selena Gomez did not cry for her.”

This is true. And it reminded me of another thing that Selena Gomez did not cry about: the statues that were brutally and viciously destroyed at the hands of the BLM movement and “woke” ideology. Selena Gomez did not cry for the soldier statues whose heads were smashed to pieces with sledgehammers in Portsmouth, Virginia as people cheered and a brass band played. She did not cry for the statues hung with nooses from traffic lights in a North Carolina town. She did not cry for Christopher Columbus, lynched on the steps of the Minnesota state capitol as his murderers raised their hands in triumph and posed for photos with his pitiful, face-down body. She did not cry for Robert E. Lee when his head was sawed from his body and his face sliced off before he was placed into a white-hot furnace and reduced to molten bronze.

I’m going to stop giving examples, because thinking about these atrocities and typing the words to describe them makes me feel sick to my stomach. And these are only a few examples among hundreds. To say that I’ve cried for what happened to these statues is an understatement. Over the past four and a half years, I’ve sobbed uncontrollably on more occasions than I can count, wailed, screamed until my voice was hoarse, punched walls, thrown furniture, and shed enough tears to fill an ocean. I’ve experienced pain so intense, so agonizing, and so excruciating that it is impossible to fully describe. No words can do it justice. What happened to these statues is the most angering, saddening, heartbreaking thing that has ever taken place in the world.

For Selena Gomez to cry for what is happening with illegal immigrants, while ignoring the far worse situation that has happened and that continues to happen with statues, demonstrates a complete lack of both logic and empathy. What happened to these statues – not what is happening with illegal immigrants – is what is actually upsetting. What happened to these statues is what Selena Gomez should be crying for. In fact, what happened to these statues is what everyone should be crying for. The entire population should be unanimously shouting from the rooftops, screaming at the top of their lungs, protesting in the streets, demanding justice, for what happened to these statues. 

But Selena Gomez doesn’t care about the statues, and neither do most people. To cry about immigrants being deported, but not about the statues, demonstrates a lack of empathy on the part of both Selena Gomez and society as a whole. 

bookmark_border“Hell, yeah! Let’s put up statues of Hitler and Putin!”

Posted on by Marissa

Yup, let’s only allow statues that you personally like to exist!

Let’s only allow statues that reflect the views, perspectives, and stories of the majority! Clearly, that’s what it means to be diverse and inclusive!

Also, restoring a statue that was removed is totally the same thing as building a new statue!

Sounds logical.

Not. 

Plus, what would be wrong with putting up statues of Hitler and Putin, anyways? Hitler and Putin are historical figures (the latter is still alive, so maybe not technically a historical figure yet) that both you and the majority of people happen not to like.
But how well-liked or popular a person is, has nothing to do with whether they are good or bad.

You consider your own personal dislike of a historical figure as obvious proof that it would be ridiculous to put up a statue of them. In other words, you act as if your own personal likes and dislikes are the sole determinant of goodness and badness, and you treat this as obviously true. When in reality, this isn’t true at all, let alone obviously so. Your personal likes and dislikes might match up perfectly with the majority’s, because you have no capacity for independent thought, but this doesn’t make them any more legitimate than anyone else’s. Minority views and perspectives are just as legitimate, and just as deserving of being reflected in statues and public art, as yours are. 

“Hell, yeah! Let’s put up statues of Hitler and Putin!”

Um, yeah. And that’s bad, how?

Translation: “Hell yeah! Let’s put up statues of people that I don’t like!”

As if it the existence of views and perspectives other than your own, is somehow ridiculous. As if it’s ridiculous for statues to exist that honor anyone but bland, mundane people that the majority approves of. Completely ignoring the fact that this not only defeats the entire purpose of statues but also creates a world in which life isn’t worth living. 

You think that you’re so smart, you think that you’ve somehow defeated the argument for restoring the memorial at Arlington National Cemetery with this purported “gotcha” comment. But your comment isn’t the hot take that you think it is. In reality, all that your comment demonstrates is your own mindless intolerance and moral bankruptcy. 

“Hell yeah! Let’s create a world in which everything that makes life worth living has been destroyed!”

Sounds really great.

Not.

bookmark_border“Belongs in the dumpster of history”

Posted on by Marissa

“Belongs in the dumpster of history,” you wrote, under a picture of one of the few things in the world that is beautiful and meaningful.

Yup, the idea that people who are different from you might actually have the right to exist “belongs in the dumpster of history.” Sounds reasonable. Makes perfect sense. Not. 

How could you see something magical, one of the few sources of happiness and joy that actually exist, and think that it belongs in a metaphorical “dumpster”?

But then I realized. You’ve never had to deal with the pain, the shame, of not fitting in. Of not being able to make friends. Of having everything you say, everything you wear, everything you do, criticized. Of being told that if only you changed the way you talked, dressed, stood, sat, moved, felt, thought, spent your time, then you would be healthy, and people would like you. You were never bullied and had your parents respond by telling you that you should stop wearing dresses and stop wearing your hair in pigtails, because then people would be less likely to bully you.

You’re not different. You don’t think for yourself. You follow social norms. You have friends. You fit in. You’re a bland, mundane person who is just like everyone else. 

You’ve never suffered. You’ve never felt pain. 

In fact, you’re not really a person at all, because if you were, you would have a soul, and if you had a soul, then you too would be filled with awe and wonder at the statue that is being built, rather than claiming that it belongs in a metaphorical “dumpster.”

You’re a lump of flesh and blood with no soul, no mind, and no capacity for independent thought. 

God forbid that people who are different from you exist. 

God forbid that people who are different from you be honored with monuments. 

Can’t have that. Can’t have any diversity allowed to exist in the world. Can’t have anything that actually makes life worth living. 

Clearly, in your eyes, only people like you have the right to exist, and anyone who is different deserves to be put into a metaphorical “dumpster.”

Without the Confederacy, history is bland and mundane, just a long tale of mindless, conformist people who are all the same, who all think the same, and who all do the same things. And what is the point of that? What is the point of studying that, honoring that, being interested in that? What is the point of living at all?

There is none.

The Confederacy is my special interest. The Confederacy is what makes my life worth living. The Confederacy is magical to me. It is the most beautiful thing in the world, and nothing else can compare. How could you, how dare you, how could you possibly consider my special interest to be something that belongs in a dumpster? 

in conclusion, I hope that you die a slow and painful death, and that once you’re gone no one remembers you. That’s what you deserve for being a mindless bully. That’s what you deserve for having the cruelty, nastiness, and utter moral bankruptcy to claim that my special interest “belongs in the dumpster of history.” In reality, you are the one who belongs in the dumpster of history. You have no empathy, no character, no mind, no capacity for independent thought, and no soul.

bookmark_borderFour years ago today

Posted on by Marissa

Four years ago today, after spending months lauding, worshipping, and deifying the perpetrators of riots in which the people I love were murdered, society decided to erupt in an orgy of vicious condemnation of a group of people like me who had the audacity to actually hold a protest expressing our views.

For the entire late spring and summer of 2020, in nearly every city and state, intolerant bullies held violent and hateful demonstrations during which they demanded that members of the majority never again have to encounter a person who is different from the norm, that people like me be obliterated from existence, that the only perspective acknowledged be their own, that all voices other than theirs be silenced. My “friends” responded to this by unanimously flooding social media with mindless expressions of solidarity with the bullies. Politicians responded by effusively praising the bullies, groveling at their feet, and falling all over each other in their eagerness to fulfill the bullies’ demands. Our country’s public art, public spaces, place names, and calendars were redone to ensure that people like me could no longer feel included, to erase every possible trace of non-majority perspectives, stories, and viewpoints.

On January 6, 2021, people like me protested. We were hurt and angry at the way that we had been treated, as anyone with even half a brain would be in our situation. After being subjected to months of the cruelest and most appalling treatment imaginable, finally we fought back. Our hurt and anger were 100% justified, as were all of our actions. My “friends” responded to this by expressing their disgust and complaining that it made them sick to their stomachs to see people like me standing up for ourselves and expressing our views. The pro-bullying activists who up until that point had been masquerading as the news media responded by viciously attacking and condemning us in the harshest terms imaginable. Live on air, the disgraceful excuses for human beings who called themselves political commentators called us idiots, morons, “traitors,” white supremacists, and worse.

Four years ago today, one of the people like me who participated in the protest, Ashli Babbitt, was murdered. And society responded not by criticizing the person who murdered her, but by condemning and ridiculing her for having participated in the protest in the first place. Society reacted by blaming her for her own murder.

Today, Donald Trump will be certified as president. Nothing can bring Ashli Babbitt back, but this day gives me a small bit of satisfaction. Nothing can truly undo the atrocity that was perpetrated against people like me four years ago, but this day does undo it a little bit. This day gives me, and all people like me, a victory. Because what the participants in the protest were trying to achieve four years ago, has actually happened. Donald Trump is going to be president. Today, people like me have won. And the mindless and intolerant society that decided to sadistically attack, condemn, shame, insult, and murder us, merely for expressing views that are different from those of the majority, lost.

To say that it serves them right, would be an understatement.

 

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Rest in peace, Air Force Veteran Ashli Babbitt.

Say Her Name.

bookmark_borderMilitary watchdog group STARRS speaks out against Arlington atrocity

Posted on by Marissa

The military watchdog group STARRS (Stand Together Against Racism and Radicalism in the Services)

has published an article correctly condemning the atrocity that was committed at Arlington National Cemetery one year ago.

“Of all the woke agenda advanced by the Biden-Harris Defense Department, arguably the worst was the removal of the Reconciliation Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery.

In a little covered event, a massive crane was driven into Arlington National Cemetery at the end of Hanukkah and the process of dismantling a historic memorial, the brainchild of US President William McKinley (the last president to serve in the Civil War), from Section 16 was accomplished…

If hauling down a monument to veterans in cemetery isn’t bad enough, this particular Memorial was actually the headstone for the sculptor, Moses Ezekiel.  His brother got special approval to inter his brother at its base and it is has always been considered the headstone by the family.”

Read the rest here.

The article states of the Biden administration, “Their agenda was division, not unity.” I agree with that and would also add that their agenda was (and continues to be) the complete and utter obliteration from existence of every person who is different from the norm in any way. I am such a person, and that is why fighting back against atrocities such as the one committed at Arlington is so important to me.