For the top of the monument, Ezekiel created the figure of a
classically adorned woman, sometimes called Lady South. This figure may
be modeled after Nike who is often depicted as a statue holding a laurel
wreath. Ezekiel’s figure holds a laurel wreath in one hand, the symbol
in ancient Greece and Rome of peace, achievement, and honor. In his
Memoirs, Ezekiel wrote, “I would like to make a heroic bronze statue
representing the South, a standing figure dignified and sorrowful with
her right hand resting on the handle of the plough and her left hand,
extended, holding out laurel wreath, whilst her head would be crowned
with a wreath of olives. On the plinth upon which she stood, I would put
in relief four cinerary urns overshadowed with palm leaves. Each of the
urns would have a date of the War. On the base would appear the
inscription from Isaiah 2:4. ‘And they shall turn their swords into
ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks.’ Underneath this would
be a round disk with the shields or coats of arms of the Southern
states in relief. Beneath this, the circular body of the monument ought
to have a high relief upon it to represent the sacrifices and heroism of
the men and women of the South.”
The Naming Commission, which is now disbanded, produced a report
describing inaccurately, “The memorial offers a nostalgic, mythologized
vision of the Confederacy, including highly sanitized depictions of
slavery. ‘Two of these figures are portrayed as African-American: an
enslaved woman depicted as a ‘Mammy,’ holding the infant child of a
white officer, and an enslaved man following his owner to war.” The
problem with this description is that Ezekiel never wrote that he was
depicting slaves, and there were many freemen during the war. The report
also falsely associates the monument with the Lost Cause, which has
nothing to do with the meaning behind the Reconciliation Memorial and is
nowhere inscribed on it.
According to Lunelle Siegel of Defend Arlington (
www.DefendArlington.org), “
The
Memorial was part of a Reconciliation movement in the country and the
Arlington Memorial was the brainchild of US President William McKinley
and supported by three other presidents.” In the dedication, June 4,
1914, President Woodrow Wilson, stated, “My privilege is this, ladies
and gentlemen: To declare this chapter in the history of the United
States closed and ended, and I bid you turn with me with your faces to
the future, quickened by the memories of the past, but with nothing to
do with the contests of the past, knowing, as we have shed our blood
upon opposite sides, we now face and admire one another.”
In an article originally for the Epoch Times,
September 27, 2023, Dr. Ann McLean and Scott Powell wrote, “The
Department of Defense under Secretary Lloyd Austin continues steps
toward removing the monument from Arlington….The buck really does stop
with Mr. Austin. While the Congressional Naming Commission has been
disbanded, they left behind legislation and law. That law, Section 370 of the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act,
specifically exempts Confederate grave markers from the order to remove
the names and symbols that honor the Confederacy from Department of
Defense bases and assets. Ezekiel requested that he be buried at the
foot of the monument, making it his gravestone, which should be
protected by law.”
Lunelle Siegel explains, “Defend
Arlington and other plaintiffs have filed lawsuits against Secretary of
Defense Lloyd Austin and Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth which
are pending in the US District Court for the District of Columbia. The
Defendants have asked the Court to dismiss the case and the court
decision is pending. This is a grave marker by the Naming Commission’s
own definition, and Austin should have stopped, looked and listened
before ordering implemation of this recommendation.” The lawsuit of
February 16, 2023 specifically says, “Defendants exceeded its
statutory jurisdiction in ordering removal of the Confederate Memorial,
by unlawfully disregarding Congressional direction to seek local
sensitivities; unlawfully directing removal of a grave marker; an area
where it has no jurisdiction; and acting in violation of NEPA, NHPA and
FACA.” On September 3, 2023, Karen Durham-Aquilera, Executive Director,
Office of Army Cemeteries, was questioned in an email about removing the
monument, that disturbing the graves of veterans being illegal and that
Secretary Austin is following an illegal order from Congress. Further,
if she or any Arlington Cemetery military personnel allow a crane to
damage said gravesites at the memorial that also is a violation of law,
and that their apparent use of The Nuremburg Defense to follow illegal
Superior Orders was invalid. She refused to answer.
The question remains, why would Secretary Austin, or whoever else is
urging the removal of the Reconciliation Memorial, continue to push for
this illegal act, when the public is against it?
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