A proposed Oklahoma bill has been altered in an effort to be more inclusive in the protection of military monuments, including Confederate monuments.
In its original version, the bill prohibited state and local government from renaming or removing structures and monuments that honor military figures or events starting with World War I and ending with the second Persian Gulf War.
The revised bill would preserve memorials to the confederacy. According to NewsOK, however, Oklahoma House Representative Dustin Roberts said the measure was altered to be more inclusive of all military conflicts and wasn’t specifically directed to the confederacy.
“This is about monuments and not symbols,” Gary Lindsey, professor of history, said. “If you are talking about monuments that are just referring to people who had significant roles in the Civil War – whether they are confederate or union – those memorials are just symbolic of those people’s service in a historic period of the U.S.”
Lindsey said that the monuments are not communicating negative messages, although they are sometimes interpreted that way.
“They are not, at least any memorial I am aware of, saying slavery was good,” Lindsey said. “You may not agree with what those people stood for, but it is part of the history of the U.S. and part of the history of those states that have confederate statues.”
Professor of political science Raymond Huston said the revision of the bill was not necessary.
“The way the law was originally proposed was the correct way, where no war from World War I forward, or any monument based on World War I forward could be changed,” Huston said. “The problem about adding and going to any war then changes the meaning of the bill itself because Oklahoma was not even a state during the Civil War. So protecting the idea of state rights and Oklahoma heritage when there was no Oklahoma, comes into question and possible racism by adding the confederate positioning to this bill.”
Josh Gage, a junior political science major, said that the proposed bill starts discussion about the topic of the real meaning behind Confederate symbols.
“Well it is definitely pretty interesting as far as bringing back to light the debate about the confederate flag and whatever it stands for,” Junior Josh Gage said. “I think the flag stands for more like how divided the states were, unfortunately. Now that we have come so far out of that, it’s good to look back and see how divided we were physically: the North and South.”
With ancestors that fought on both sides in the Civil War, junior Cody Milner said he thinks this bill is an improvement of the previous one because it is important to keep monuments protected as part of history and heritage.
If the Oklahoma House of Representatives passes the bill, it would have to go back to the Senate for another vote.
0
0
Be First to Comment