It was billed as a forum to let the community express their views on whether to move the Jefferson Davis Memorial Monument out of Washington Park to another, less prominent site.
But from the outset it was evident that what some participants wanted was not to voice their opinion on moving the stone, but on making the forum one for their views on race.
Hosted by the Parks Advisory board, only one city commissioner – Cesar de Leon – attended the entire meeting. Commissioner Rose Gowen stayed for a while until the dialogue eroded into a shouting match between anti-confederacy activists and participants who viewed them as racist throwbacks embracing the Neo-Confederacy viewpoints.But local gadfly and perennial losing political candidate Erasmo Castro had what he wanted: a soapbox for the public to listen to his spiel. What did he do?
Instead of saying whether he wanted the monument moved or not, he used his 15 minutes of fame to recite verbatim, the secret recording of De Leon made by former fire chief Carlos Elizondo during a private conversation between four people in an isolated ranch. During a rant, De Leon – an attorney – used the "N" word to refer to several Asst. DAs he thought were overly harsh and vindictive toward local Hispanic defendants.
Castro's distasteful performance obviously didn't get the rise from people that Castro thought it would. Most of those present thought it was a gratuitous abuse of the forum to attack De Leon, who also spoke at the forum and gave the context for his speech. When De Leon first announced he was thinking of resigning, Castro called for a conference of potential candidates to replace him and invited them to discuss "his" city commission position. Shortly after he spoke, Castro left.
But what some veterans who attended said was that like it or not, Jefferson Davis was a veteran and that he deserved a place at the Veterans Park next to the central library to commemorate his service. Before the southern states seceded, Davis was an officer in the Union army and participated in the Mexican-American War and the Indian Wars. Some said that the country had declared confederate soldiers veterans, a faulty interpretation of a symbolic congressional act declaring the surviving ones eligible only for pensions.
Others said that since Davis had committed treason against the Unites States and killed its soldiers, he didn't deserve to be in Veterans Park with those who were loyal to this country.
Various people have said that the Davis stone does not belong in a museum, but rather could be placed at the Charles Stillman House, his contemporary who listed a fugitive slave as his possession in Cameron County.
Stillman supported the secession of the southern states even though he was originally from Connecticut. During the Civil War he amassed a fortune smuggling Confederate cotton under a Mexican flag out of Matamoros. He sold some of that cotton to the Union for the manufacture of soldier uniforms.
(One of our seven readers noticed that the Texas flag in the Stillman House picture above was flown upside down. The white part should go o top, he said.)
The Stillman House is located on Washington Street in the heart of downtown Brownsville and is visited by thousands yearly.
The reason the Town Hall was scheduled by the Parks Advisory Board was so they could get input from the public and then they would forward their recommendation to the full city commission. Since the majority of the commissioners did not attend, they will have no way of knowing the context of the discussion before the y cast their vote.
17 comments:
Does el marrano have anything to do, like work? Oh wait, he doesn't work. Maldito mantenido.
Don't move the monument to the Stillman house! Stillman was a Confederate traitor and Davis was a Confederate hero. Davis served honorably under the U.S. flag, the monument more properly belongs in Veterans Park. It can be moved there and erected with no cost to the city.
That guy is "something else"!
For being a Christian and Theologian, he sure leaves a lot to be desired. I'm sure he's not an all out bad fellow, but he should be the LAST person critizing others.
The people have spoken in his last political contests and that speaks volumes!
good pic! Thanks Juan!
They didn't attend because they don't care. They will do what Mayor Blue Jean tells them to do. Never mine the citizens. So much yelling and screaming at each other and no one did anything to stop it until a lady had the guts to step up and condemn the process a prejudice and was almost arrested. She was serving as the parliamentarian which is what someone on the panel should have done. I salute that lady and will watch the re-runs to recall her name and keep it in mine when we are looking for sincere candidates for official offices. She speaks her mind and Tone won't be able to tell her what to do or not do.
Get a job Erasmo!
Get a life
And get out of town.
How can a person with no work, no career, profess he will make City government better, when he, has no curriculum to show he has done so in the past?
What experience will he apply to City government day to day operations?
Borrale a la chingada.... y llévate a de león contigo.
Erasmo stood up for all who believe Cesar de Leon is a real living racist and should be removed; and stop worrying about an inanimate rock. Congress made all Civil War Veterans from the South....U.S. Veterans. The war is over and all who fought on either side is a Veteran. The war was only indirectly related to slavery. Abe Lincoln was willing to reunite the Union, with or without slavery. The war was fought because a nation cannot have to economic systems...one based on slavery and another based on free labor. Most of the anti-confederates today should read their history, not just be "ditto heads" to the Snowflake Liberals of this nation.
Like it or not, the Confederacy is part of this nation's heritage. Obviously, it was deeply flawed, but the moronic notion that the War Between the States was simply over slavery is a case of seriously flawed revisionism. Look at Robert E. Lee and Thomas Jackson (Stonewall) for example. Neither were proponents of slavery. This is not to say they were not tainted by contact with the "peculiar Institution" but rather that both of them were convinced that it would die of its own weight as the South modernized and industrialized. In Lee's case, he fought hard for his state and its view of state's rights, but it is worth remembering that he refused to countenance the very real prospect of prolonging the war by turning it into a "guerrilla" struggle. Soldiers who fought for the Confederacy are numbered among American war dead, however misguided their cause may have been (and I am not necessarily saying that all of it was). History is what it is, and no amount of misguided attempts to edit it out of the public consciousness or rewrite in in accordance with the political or social temperament of the times is going to change a thing. The Jefferson Rock should be in Veterans Park.
Are Erasmo Castro and The Blimp one and the same? They look so much alike, bro! You never see a photo of those two together. Hmmmmmmmmm
Move it to vet park so the dogs can do their thing on top or on the side of the rock. So appropriately.
This Davis monument is a hot potato. Whatever is decided, there will be folks very very upset and angry. The local politicos don't want to get anywhere near this thing. They punted the ball and had a Town Hall. When the ball get back to them, they will delay, table, study and avoid making a decision. They hope that sooner or later, everybody will forget about it and just go home.
He served under the US flag, then he said "Fuck you" to the same flag. He's a racist traitor.
Erasmo can run all he wants. We'll make sure he loses.
Ta Todo Pendejo Ese Vato Erasmo .
He was a rebel. That's not very patriotic. Moving it to Veterans Park is an insult to those who love the USA. Get out of here with your racist ideas!
Castro is a grade a homo
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