Perhaps he should ask his good friend John Lewis - who has called for the removal of such monuments - to explain it to him. And for the vice president of the United States to insist that there is no other way for our nation to remember its ugly past - that those statues that have “graced our cities” must remain in place - proves he does not know the first thing about our nation’s history. That’s not a history that should be celebrated or honored. Certainly Lewis is not going to easily forget our nation’s ugly history, even if every Confederate statue in America is removed.Īnd neither will those who have even casually perused a history book and know that the majority of those monuments were erected for the very specific purpose of intimidating African-Americans, decades after the Confederate traitors were defeated. For Pence to try to link himself to Lewis - “arm in arm,” no less - to justify his defense of honoring white supremacy is a disgrace. John Lewis was beaten nearly to death for marching against the very white supremacy those monuments and statues celebrate. But Pence went beyond that defense to something even more cynical and ugly. It is bad enough that Pence agrees with Trump that monuments to traitors have a rightful place in this country. We ought to be celebrating the men and women who’ve helped our nation move toward a more perfect union. You know, when I walked, back in 2010, across the Edmund Pettus Bridge with John Lewis, arm in arm, and we remembered Bloody Sunday, and the extraordinary progress of the civil rights movement, I can’t help but think that rather than pulling down monuments, as some are wont to do, rather than tearing down monuments that have graced our cities all across this country for years, we ought to be building more monuments. But we also ought to celebrate the progress that we’ve made since that history. What we ought to do is we ought to remember our history. Mike Pence, who is struggling with fundraising and might miss the debate cutoff, mocked rivals offering stunt kickbacks in exchange for donations. I’m someone who believes in more monuments, not less monuments. PENCE: Obviously, I think that should always be a local decision. What we have to walk away from is the desire by some to erase parts of our history in the name of some contemporary political cause.ĮARHARDT: So you’re in favor of keeping the monuments? I hold the view that it’s important that we remember our past and build on the progress we’ve made.
PENCE: Well, first off, I agree with the president that seeing people destroy public property in the name of any cause is just simply unacceptable. EARHARDT: Some are calling for the Confederate monuments at the Capitol to be taken down.
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