Change.org has two petitions concerning the City of Pensacola’s “Our Confederate Dead” monument that Mayor Ashton Hayward has said he wants to remove. The petition that asks City of Pensacola to keep all Confederate memorials in Pensacola has 6,959 signatures, far out pacing the petition asking Mayor Hayward to remove the Lee Square Confederate statue, 1,972.
Here are the two petitions:
Keep All Confederate Memorials in Pensacola
There have been numerous petitions to destroy and/or remove the Confederate Memorial at Lee Square in Pensacola, Florida after the past events in Charlottesville. As horrible as those events were it should not be a rallying call to destroy history. Confederate soldiers , to whom most of these memorials are dedicated to; were considered to be Veterans of war by an Act of Congress. Thus allowing them the same privelege of being honored as any other war veteran. Censoring of history just because it doesn’t fit a certain agenda has to be stopped. Please sign the petition to let the City of Pensacola and all elected officials know that we want our memorials to remain.
Remove the Lee Square Confederate Statue from Pensacola
The Lee square confederate memorial has existed as is since 1891 in downtown Pensacola. With hate crimes and white nationalist movements on the rise, we as a city must come together to make some serious symbolic strides to combat racism. With the removal of this statue, we can put an end to glamorizing the confederacy and recognize that they stood for the continued enslavement of black people in this country. Please join me in signing this petition to encourage Mayor Ashton Hayward to remove this symbol of hate. Thank you.
Escambia County Commissioner Doug Underhill has taken a stand in favor of keeping the monument in Lee Square. In a Facebook post that linked to the Keep petition and is titled “Stand with Doug Underhill,” he wrote yesterday morning, “No intelligent society destroys the reminders of the past. I’ve watched the Muslim horde do it throughout Southwest Asia. This is absurd mob behavior, thinking men and women do not behave this way.”
One thing that would help defuse the debate would be for Mayor Hayward to announce how he wants to remove the monument, give the public his timetable, and say whether he will hold an open forum for people to voice their opinions about his plans. Simply passing this “hot potato” over to the Pensacola City Council won’t work. He started this discussion. He needs to lead the city through its resolution.