I am flabbergasted that we suddenly seem to have consensus in this country that the Confederate flag is not an acceptable thing to fly on public buildings. Even Republican leaders seem to be scrambling over each other to denounce the flag. This seems like a silver lining in the horror of Charleston.
Now I wonder if we can make use of this moment to undo a festering wrong in Virginia: We have, of course, an abundance of Confederate monuments, celebrations of white supremacy right in the middle of most of our most prominent public squares.
In recent years, in Charlottesville for example, there have been very bitter debates about these monuments. City Councillor Kristin Szakos suffered a tidal wave of abuse, harassing phone calls and online hate a couple of years back when she just asked in a public forum if it might be time for the giant Robert E. Lee statue to go.
But the debate gets stuck on a fine point of the law: Amazingly, in Virginia, even if a city decided to move its Confederate statues, it would be illegal to do so. This is because of a state-wide statue, Virginia Code 15.2-1812:
A locality may, within the geographical limits of the locality, authorize and permit the erection of monuments or memorials for any war or conflict,... If such are erected, it shall be unlawful for the authorities of the locality, or any other person or persons, to disturb or interfere with any monuments or memorials so erected, or to prevent its citizens from taking proper measures and exercising proper means for the protection, preservation and care of same. For purposes of this section, "disturb or interfere with" includes removal of, damaging or defacing monuments or memorials, or, in the case of the War Between the States, the placement of Union markings or monuments on previously designated Confederate memorials or the placement of Confederate markings or monuments on previously designated Union memorials.
This is a stunning abrogation of local autonomy. Surely we should have the right to take down a statue that no longer represents local values? Or to move it to another park, and put something in its place that does represent our values? I would love, love to see a monument to the men and women to ran the local underground railroad in place of the Lee statue. (Put Lee over in the Art museum and we can admire the bronze musculature of the horse. It's a nice looking horse.) But no matter what the local people want, we can't do it, because of the Virginia Code.
Perhaps we can seize this moment and change this? Just amend Virginia Code 15.2-1812 to allow towns to do what they want with their monuments.
Suppose we put the idea to House of Delgates Minority leader, Democrat David Toscano, House of Delgates Majority Leader, Republican Kirk Cox, State Senate Minority Leader, Democrat Dick Saslaw, or Senate Majority leader Tommy Norment? With Terry Mac's action on the license plates, we may well have momentum on this.