by Kaylee Greenlee
A bill to remove statues of Confederate leaders and figures who advocated for white supremacy from the Capitol passed the House on a bipartisan vote Wednesday, the New York Times reported.
The House voted 305 to 113 to remove the statues as part of a broad effort to take symbols of racism out of public spaces, the Times reported. The legislation was introduced by House Majority Leader and Democratic Maryland Rep. Steny H. Hoyer.
“These painful symbols of bigotry and racism—they have no place in our society, and certainly should not be enshrined in the United States Capitol,” co-sponsor of the bill and Democratic California Rep. Barbara Lee said, the Times reported.
“It’s past time that we end the glorification of men who committed treason against the United States in a concerted effort to keep African-Americans in chains.”
Today I voted to remove confederate statues from the U.S. Capitol. The U.S. Capitol should be reserved for pieces of art that inspire and unite us as a nation.
— Rep. Chris Stewart (@RepChrisStewart) July 22, 2020
The legislation explicitly named five statues to be removed from the Capitol, and would require “all statues of individuals who voluntarily served” the Confederacy to be removed, the Times reported.
State leaders are the only leaders authorized by federal law to replace statues in the Capitol, and each state is permitted to have two statues displayed in the National Statuary Hall collection, the Times reported.
Though the legislation is unlikely to be put to a vote in the Senate, 72 House Republicans voted in favor of the bill, the Times reported.
“The history of this nation is so fraught with racial division, with hatred,” Republican Michigan Rep. Paul Mitchell said, the Times reported. “The only way to overcome that is to recognize that, acknowledge it for what it is.”
Republican Senate Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said the move was “clearly a bridge too far” and an effort to “airbrush the Capitol,” the Times reported. McConnell said the states should decide what statues are displayed in the Capitol, however, he advocated a statue of Jefferson Davis be moved from the Kentucky State Capitol to a museum in 2015, according to the Times.
Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, had four portraits of former speakers removed from outside of the House chamber because they represented the Confederacy last month, the Times reported.
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Kaylee Greenlee is a reporter for the Daily Caller News Foundation.
As a very vocal autistic southerner, (Oklahoma), female, mom (2 autistic sons), Cherokee, sister, daughter, notary public, student of aviation, psychiatry, an ex wife, a widow, an ex drinker, ex irresponsible party girl, pot enthusiast, unapologetic broad spectrum racist and anti semite and recently uncharacteristically patriotic. It must be said that removing statutes, photos, flags, changing team names, and all the other erasures being attempted by whomever is not the solution, though the Inspiration for the destruction of America, a carreer criminal who died high on meth and fentanyl during arrest for passing counterfeit money named George floyd would probably be loving it! But It’s as wrong as the alleged and confirmed deeds of the people who’s statutes and photos are being burned and toppled. Just because you remove a symbol of something from public view or destroy it doesn’t “unmake” “nullify” “undo” the symbols symbolism. The swastika is a Buddhist symbol btw. Hitler simply liked it and POOF wear one somewhere today and holy cow! I like it too, the confederate flag as well. Cherokees were slave owners & Other clans hated us for it but we all got screwed anyway so it shouldn’t matter much. Half of Our nation would like to embrace anybody with a drop of indian blood as one of us but the correct half of us know that degree of blood matters. Otherwise we wouldn’t have to prove degree of blood to be citizens of the Cherokee nation and have identification stating so. And just a side note, we indigenous were here long before black slaves got on the boats and yes we indigenous blame those who brought em here for bringing them here. They do not speak for us, nobody does. We choose to speak for ourselves. We dont need you to change team names. Most of us dont really care about that. Mount Rushmore is another story. Before all that however, a little normalcy would be lovely. Freeze this debacle in its tracks and everybody breathe. But at a socially acceptable distance from each other. Then we can charge the rioters as terrorists, silence this socialized medicine/ cancel culture/ leftwing/ trans world lunacy and get back to being capitalist and happy. As a 2nd amendment supporter, I refuse to be told how I’m to exist by some nappy headed gangbanger reject, or welfare queen or trans anything. I’d put jews in there too but they already control everything unfortunately so that’s a won war for them a loss for us. For the rest though Enough is enough.