There is no monument. No plaque. No marker.
There are no illiterate marchers with dime-store tiki torches, and no right-wing politicians trying to suck up to them. There is nobody from any national party proclaiming the need to protect this hate.
It’s just a parking lot. It’s a parking lot where a lot of people like to relieve themselves, I am told.
In fact, look all around Germany. There are no glorifying statues of Nazi leaders, and no swastika flags flying. Compare this with the tons of commemorative statues and parks that dot the South.
You don’t just see historical markers, but giant iron or stone tributes depicting the traitorous leaders on horseback with glowing inscriptions of their “bravery" and "honor". These bastards, like the Nazis, tried to kill as many American soldiers as they could. Both groups are also responsible for two of the worst atrocities in human history—the holocaust and the slave trade—born from their hateful, ideological belief in white supremacy that allowed them to think of their fellow man as subhuman. Both groups, the Nazis and the Confederates, deserve to be forever relegated to the “ashbin of history.”
The difference here is that Germany doesn’t honor their shameful past. Many Southern states, however, still do. You simply shouldn’t build monuments to defeated enemies: no one is advocating building a Bin Laden statue on Ground Zero to "preserve history". It’s not just stupid, but offensive. Germany figured this out long ago. Unsurprisingly, our dim-witted president and his white trash followers still haven’t.
What we should be doing is honoring real American heroes. We should be recognizing the people who embody our values, such as equality and justice. We should honor those who stood up against our enemies, instead of those who fought with them.
We should honor Heather Heyer with her own statue, or park, or both.
There is a petition to replace the Robert E. Lee statue in Charlottesville with a much more appropriate statue of Heather Heyer. Thousands have already signed. Add your name if you agree.
At some point, probably during my lifetime, all Confederate monuments will all come down. White supremacist ideology is dying, and even its supporters know it. It may not seem like it now in the age of Trump, but that is because change is painful. Here in Orlando, the Johnny Reb statue at Lake Eola was recently dismantled despite politicians in recent years swearing that would never happen. I grew up in the South, and the Confederate flag was iconic--now it's been taken down from the statehouse in freaking South Carolina. (And even painted over on the infamous car from a stupid TV show.) My parents thought they'd never live to see an African-American president. My grandparents were afraid there would always be segregation. All of that seemed impossible, but changed in a few short years.
The mayor of Charlottesville, who has strongly blamed Trump for the violence, has a choice: remove the statue of Lee now or later. I think a Heather Heyer statue will do a lot to rebuild Charlottesville's tarnished image, and stand as a defiant warning to American traitors everywhere. The mayor and city council would have the support of the people of Charlottesville, as well as the nation.
If not a Heather Heyer statue, then at least remove the General Lee and make it into a parking lot. Just make sure there are plenty of bushes.