A Confederate monument at Arlington National Cemetery is set to be dismantled this week, aligning with the nationwide initiative to eliminate Confederate symbols from military-associated locations.
Arlington Cemetery, in a recent statement, announced the installation of safety fencing around the memorial, anticipating the completion of the removal process by Friday. The protective measures aim to safeguard the landscape, graves, and headstones adjacent to the monument during the dismantling.
The cemetery’s news release emphasized, “During the deconstruction, the area around the Memorial will be protected to ensure no impact to the surrounding landscape and grave markers and to ensure the safety of visitors in and around the vicinity of the deconstruction.”
Despite resistance from Republican lawmakers, including a letter from 44 legislators led by Georgia Representative Andrew Clyd, urging Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to preserve the Reconciliation Monument, the removal process moves forward. Clyd argued that the monument signifies “reconciliation and national unity” rather than commemorating the Confederacy.
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An independent commission’s September 2022 report to Congress recommended the removal of the monument, unveiled in 1914 and designed by a Confederate veteran. The memorial, according to Arlington Cemetery, presents a “nostalgic, mythologized vision of the Confederacy, including highly sanitized depictions of slavery.”
