Our governor cowers at the echo of a rebel yell
This could be Gov. Doug Ducey’s “Piestewa Peak moment.” But no. The governor has the chance to right an old wrong, to take a stand against racism and to show genuine leadership. It’s what then-Gov. Janet Napolitano did in 2003, when she cajoled and coerced bureaucrats, and knowingly angered some voters, by orchestrating the name change from Squaw Peak to Piestewa Peak — in honor of Lori Piestewa, a fallen soldier and member of the Hopi Tribe.
It was a political fight Napolitano could have avoided, saying it was outside of her purview, but she didn’t.
Ducey can do something similar with Arizona’s Confederate monuments.
The governor has an opportunity to do the right thing for no other reason than because it’s the right thing to do. How refreshing would that be from a politician?
A good start would be getting the grounds crew at the state Capitol to bulldoze the memorial to Confederate troops at Wesley Bolin Memorial Plaza.
Next, the governor could bully a state board into erasing the designation of the “Jefferson Davis Highway” from U.S. 60 at Peralta Road in Apache Junction.
Instead of doing this, however, Ducey
defers. Again. His spokesman told The Arizona Republic, “For something like the memorial at the Wesley Bolin plaza, that’s overseen by the Legislative Governmental Mall Commission. And for the (Jefferson Davis) highway, that’s the State Board on Geographic and Historical Names. Even though the request is directed at the governor, these issues really fall under the jurisdiction of other entities.”
The distant echo of a rebel yell apparently sent the governor cowering under a flimsy veil of bureaucratic protocol.
African-American leaders in Arizona recently joined others around the nation in asking legislative leaders to consider removing Confederate monuments. They pointed to six sites in our state.
East Valley NAACP spokeswoman Collette Watson said, “We believe that these monuments have been erected to intimidate, terrorize and strike fear in the hearts of Arizonans, particularly African-Americans, while inspiring and emboldening white supremacists.” The subject has come up before. State Rep. Reginald Bolding already has asked that the Jefferson Davis Highway be renamed. Recently he said, “We called on the governor (two years ago), and what he gave us was lip service. We hope that we can get action today.”
Most of the monuments don’t have anything to do with preserving history, as some say.
I was born and raised in Pennsylvania. One of the most moving places I’ve ever visited is Gettysburg National Military Park, sight of the pivotal Civil War battle, a Union victory that marked the beginning of the end for the South.
The battle site represents the northernmost incursion of Confederate forces. On the grounds today, there are more than 1,300 monuments and markers, many of them honoring individuals and units of the Confederacy. Perhaps the grandest monument in the park is the equestrian statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee.
Imagine that. A battlefield park honoring the North’s most impressive Civil War victory, and the most impressive statute on the grounds honors a Confederate general.
And that is a good thing, because the monuments at Gettysburg put the site into historical context at the very location where the events they commemorate occurred.
We have one such spot like that in Arizona: the memorials to the engagement between Union and Confederate troops at Picacho Peak State Park. The monuments there (though overdone) should be left alone.
Not the monument at the Capitol, though. Not the Jefferson Davis Highway.
The “Memorial to Arizona Confederate Troops” at the state Capitol was erected by the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1961, during the early days of the civil-rights movement. It is less about the Civil War than it is about individuals who, 56 years ago, weren’t too keen on the notion of racial equality. Those feelings persist today, and a person has every right to express them.
But not with a memorial on state property. Or a sign on a state highway. Or the name of a mountain.