Over 200 Veterans Sign Letter Asking Ducey To Remove All Confederate Monuments
More than 200 veterans in Arizona have signed a letter calling for Gov. Doug Ducey to remove all Confederate monuments and memorials in the state.
Hundreds of Arizona veterans say these Confederate monuments dishonor American soldiers as they memorialize "domestic enemies" who chose war in the name of denying freedom to Black Americans.
The letter was sent by VetsForward, a group that defends democratic values. Army veteran Aaron Marquez is the co-founder.
“These symbols dishonor all of those veterans that have served the Union and the United States since the Civil War. But specifically they dishonor the African American veterans who have served in every war since the Revolutionary War,” Marquez said.
Marquez also says removing the monuments is just a symbolic gesture and that the government needs to go even further and pursue law enforcement reform in order to "confront the legacies of slavery."
Arizona Preservation Foundation Calls For Monument Removal
In a letter sent Wednesday, the Arizona Preservation Foundation is also calling for Ducey to remove four Confederate monuments in Arizona. Jim McPherson is the foundation’s board president.
“They could be put on private property, they could be put in a museum where there is actual context given that tells a story, a full story, because these monuments as stand-alones, do not tell a story and it’s often they are one-sided,” McPherson said.
This is the second time the foundation has raised the issue with Ducey. The first time was in 2017, after protester Heather Heyer was killed in Charlottesville, Virginia, by a white supremacist. McPherson says nothing has been done in three years, so with Confederate statues being targeted nationwide after the killing of George Floyd, they decided to try again.
