A.G. Gancarski
Jacksonville City Council President Anna Brosche shocked many in local politics when she announced commencement of a process to remove Jacksonville’s Confederate monuments.
“I intend to propose legislation to move Confederate monuments, memorials, and markers from public property to museums and educational institutions where they can be respectfully preserved and historically contextualized. It is important to never forget the history of our great city; and, these monuments, memorials, and markers represent a time in our history that caused pain to so many,” Brosche asserted Monday in the wake of Charlottesville’s violence this weekend.
Some Council members aren’t ready. Mayor Lenny Curry, while sympathetic to the sentiment behind it, is waiting to see what legislation emerges as a remedy.
Meanwhile, as was the case with Jacksonville’s Human Rights Ordinance, the haters are emerging from the woodwork — and they are filling Brosche’s inbox with the kinds of vituperative emails unseen in Jacksonville city official inboxes since the discussion of LGBT rights was wrapped in February.
One such email purported to be from a senior administrator at a local university; that university, it turns out, had a cyber-security breach that this episode uncovered.
“I find your caving in to nasty commie anarchist hebes and their black jungle-bunny friends to be repulsive,” the emailer wrote.
“You are an Asian! You don’t belong here. You aren’t from here. You just can’t cave in to these sorry people and screw everyone else. You should not even be on the city council,” the emailer added, saying “liberals and their n*** allies are making you look bad.”
We asked Brosche her thoughts.
“While I’ve received an email with a closing salutation of ‘FU,’ that was the worst email so far. It does not change my position either way,” Brosche said.
Another emailer was more terse, and a fan of boldface and caps lock: “YOU’RE AN ANTI – SOUTHERN, WHITE – HATING RACIST! I HOPE AN ILLEGAL ALIEN DRUNK DRIVER CRASHES INTO YOU AND PUTS YOU OUT OF YOUR OBVIOUS MISERY, YOU COMMUNIST B****!”
Despite these examples, Brosche characterizes the reaction of community members as “pretty split” thus far.
“Lots of thanks, appreciation. Others very upset and disappointed,” Brosche said.
The next meeting of the Jacksonville City Council is on Tuesday Aug. 22.
Expect the discussion of Jacksonville’s Confederate monuments to be central during the public comment period.
Meanwhile, local right wing activists are also making their feelings known, such as local political consultant Raymond Johnson.
“It is disappointing but unfortunately expected from our current city council president, recruited from an organized group of liberal women seeking elected office influenced by progressive Audrey Moran,” was how Johnson described Brosche’s proposal.
Removal of these monuments, Johnson asserts, jibes with “the Socialist, Communist, Marxist agenda of the radical LGBT Homosexual sexual revolution aimed at destroying the biblical family and religious freedom through the force of law.”
11 comments
Heaven
August 15, 2017 at 1:27 pm
What I do not understand is why people think the civil war, was a war about slavery. Northerners owned slaves as well as free African Americans.
Mr Marks
August 15, 2017 at 2:16 pm
How long before Johnson is indicted for child molestation with a boy wearing a swastika arm band, yumulke, and southern battle flag underwear!?!
Don Pollock
August 15, 2017 at 2:34 pm
Removing Confederate statues doesn’t change history. Your idea is nothing short of “dumb.” In fact, it is so absurd you should resign from your position. I’m definitely going to donate money to the candidate that opposes you in the next election. Where does it stop? Are crosses to be removed next?
Don Pollock
August 15, 2017 at 2:41 pm
Anna, your position is absurd. You can’t change history and we need to be continually aware of it. Whats next “burning books.”
Mike Ewald
August 15, 2017 at 2:46 pm
…………………..
“Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave.”
~Frederick Douglass
Regardless of someones’ skin tone.
~Greatness personified, despite incredible odds.
Don Pollock
August 15, 2017 at 2:50 pm
Opposing Anna’s position doesn’t make it hate mail. History won’t change and we need to be aware of the past.
Sherrill
August 15, 2017 at 3:50 pm
Good for her. I hope she stays strong in her agenda and the removal of the statues and monuments.
Don Pollock
August 15, 2017 at 3:52 pm
She can’t change history. Her position can’t be justified.
Leslie Goller
August 15, 2017 at 7:48 pm
No one, including Ms. Brosche, is trying to change history; that is a ridiculous distortion. What is proposed to be stopped is a public honoring of individuals whose values and actions no longer match society’s.
The venomous hate expressed in the emails is abhorrent. Shame, Shame, Shame!
Don Pollock
August 15, 2017 at 9:09 pm
We are all aware of the history of the civil war. It was a horrible period in our history but any attempt to erase it is absurd. No one is honoring anyone. It is our history and needs to be recognized for future generations. What’s next?
Hope McCharen
August 15, 2017 at 9:56 pm
I think that is why Ms. Brosche is suggesting that we take time to inventory, and find a place to display the monuments with some historical context. This course of action does not erase or ignore our history.
Comments are closed.