Back in 2017, the city government of San Antonio, Texas – determining, apparently, that people who are different from the majority should no longer be able to feel welcome in public spaces or be represented in public art – decided to remove its Confederate monument. Like all similar instances, this decision was immoral, despicable, and an abomination that should never have even been considered as an option, let alone carried out.
However, the reason why I am posting about this now is because there is one recent piece of good news to come out of this terrible situation. The city has agreed to donate the monument to an organization called the SS American Memorial Foundation, which plans to display it in a privately owned, but publicly accessible, park. After spending 8 years in storage in an undisclosed location, the statue will finally see the light of day. Craig Russell, the founder and operator of this organization, said that he plans to collect Confederate statues from across Texas and assemble them in the park, which will be located in the city of Seguin, Texas.
As Valor Memorial Park pointed out in this Facebook post, Russell’s park seems like it will aim to do for Texas what Valor has done in North Carolina. None of this takes away from the horror and pain of the atrocities that have been committed, but the prospect that some statues will find loving and respectful homes provides a glimmer of hope in what would otherwise be a completely demoralizing situation. This is an exciting new development, and I’m looking forward to seeing the park take shape.