Open Letter to Congresswoman Tenney: Are You Sure About This Vote?

Dear Claudia:

Are you sure about your vote this week against removing Confederate statues from the halls of Congress? I ask you this because as the mother a Marine, I would have thought you would vote on the side of America and not on the side of insurrection.

This week, you joined a group of Republicans (and 2 Democrats) that shockingly includes Lee Zeldin and Elise Stefanik, along with a mostly southern delegation of American representatives, who voted against removing the statues of known traitors from the halls of Congress. A minority vote that somehow incorrectly fits into the narrative that Democrats want to cancel our American culture. Even Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy voted for this bill. Congratulations are in order as you're now completely on the side of Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.

You voted to keep the statues and busts of "Benedict Arnolds" erected and placed in the hallowed halls of the United States Congress, even though these historic figures attempted to militarily defeat the United States of America or worked to prevent African Americans from receiving their God given rights to freedom in the greatest nation on Earth.

Your vote supported honoring historic figures like former Vice President John Cadlwell Calhoun, a slave owning loud speaker whose only reason for not joining the Confederate was the fact that he died before the Civil War started. You voted to honor James Paul Clarke, a former governor of Arkansas, and Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederate States of America. Your vote also supported Roger Taney, the Supreme Court judge who penned the notorious Dred Scott v. Sanford ruling, which prevented Black Americans from becoming U.S. citizens.

I agree, your friends (or enemies) on the left are taking this movement way too far by ridiculously trying to cancel historic figures like Christopher Columbus, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington. History must always be taught and people like our forefathers must be remembered an honored for their contribution to America. These are icons who lived in a time and a place where they were caught up in egregious protocol that by today's standards are considered inhumane and un-American. This is much different than honoring historic figures who during a time of an awakening, resisted change and even took up arms against the very nation we all love and respect.

Please understand that I believe it's vital to not remove people like Jefferson Davis from history. Nothing should be removed from history. Hitler ought not be removed from history; but in logical contrast, we shouldn't honor him with a statue inside the United States Capital building.

That's the difference. This isn't cancel culture, it's correcting culture that should already have been cancelled and should have been corrected many, many years ago. We should not be honoring any member of our great history who chose succession over loyalty to our nation. Simply put, we don't honor turncoats and traitors. We teach about them, but we don't honor them. We also shouldn't be celebrating the life and career of a Supreme Court Chief Justice who is best known for authoring a decision that confirmed that people of African decent - black people - were not U.S. citizens and were offered no protections under the U.S. Constitution.

By the way, 67 of your fellow Republicans voted to remove these statues and busts, including your neighbor to the west, John Katko. Two Southern Democrats voted against the measure, as well.

The argument that this is cancel culture by the Dems is weak and to be fair, Stefanik made the same flimsy argument.  The fact is, the Congressional Museum is within the Capital building and each state is allowed to submit 2 statues or submissions. The bill, which actually passed, will mean that statues like the one of the Confederate President Jefferson Davis will be sent back to the state that submitted it.

The ideology is simple, Congress shouldn't be honoring bigots and traitors. Please keep them in the history books and teach the truth about them, but we should never ever place them on a pedestal like what was done prior to today's vote.

Congresswoman Tenney, please reconsider this vote. You are on the wrong side of the preservation of honoring history.