(C) Florida Phoenix This story was originally published by Florida Phoenix and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . FL lawmakers debating a bill to preserve historical monuments led to anger, emotion and swearing [1] ['Mitch Perry', 'More From Author', '- February'] Date: 2024-02-06 A measure to preserve historical monuments, such as Confederate statues, provoked an intense legislative committee meeting Tuesday evening that led to anger, emotion and swearing. The three Senate Democrats in the committee left the meeting room before the final vote took place. At one point, Democratic Sen. Jason Pizzo of South Florida was having a dialogue with a public speaker about Confederate ancestors when Pizzo stopped in his tracks and said, “I’m a “f——a–hole?” … “Sir, why don’t you take a walk. Take a walk.” It wasn’t clear who Pizzo was referring to in the audience. But someone there, said ” I didn’t call you that.” At issue is legislation that would prevent local governments from removing or relocating historical monuments. Over the past decade, dozens of Confederate symbols and monuments have been removed and/or relocated in cities across Florida, but two bills moving through the GOP-controlled Legislature this session would block local governments from doing that in the future. The bill being discussed Tuesday at the Senate Committee on Community Affairs, called “Protection of Historical Monuments and Memorial Act,” (SB 1122) would take away the ability of local governments to relocate, remove, damage, or destroy a monument or memorial that has been placed on public property for the past 25 years. It would be retroactive to July 1, 2018. “The goal is to preserve history, not the way it was, not the way that it might have been thought of at the time the memorial or monument was put in place, but to preserve that physical piece of history,” said Fort Myers-based GOP Sen. Jonathan Martin, the bill sponsor. A similar bill (HB 395) has already been moving in the Florida House. The movement to remove such controversial symbols emerged back in 2015, after a white supremacist killed nine Black people in a South Carolina church. Photos later showed the shooter with the Confederate battle flag. Hillsborough County was one of the first local governments in Florida to act in the wake of that incident, with their county commission voting to remove a Confederate flag that had hung in its county center later that summer. At the committee meeting, there were plenty of public speakers speaking both for and against the proposal. Jacksonville activist Wells Todd noted that the word “Confederate” was not listed in the bill, for a specific reason. “These statues were put up to honor the Confederate States of America, not the United States of America,” Todd said. “They were put up at a time of segregation, better known as Jim Crow. And they were put up to tell Black people to stay in your place, or we might come to your house, drag you out, and lynch you.” But emotions were triggered when a bill supporter said that “this is part of the cultural war being waged against white society.” That comment angered both Democrats and Republicans on the panel. “I can’t believe we’re going to have a vote after hearing such a blatant display of white supremacy,” said South Florida Democratic Sen. Lori Berman. Republican Jennifer Bradley, representing several Northeast counties in Florida, said she would vote for the bill, but called some of the comments “vile” and “bigoted.” “It looks like I endorse your hatred, and I do not,” she said. Broward County Democratic Sen. Rosalind Osgood is the only Black member on the committee. “I am very, very hurt by some of the things that were said here today,” she said. “And as a Black person living in America, where it’s supposed to be the land of freedom and justice for all, just the outpour[ing] of conversation today in my opinion was non-American.” Several times during the discussion, Sen. Pizzo told supporters of the proposal that he would personally pay to remove a historic monument to that person’s house so that the rest of the public need not be able to see it. There are currently 73 such monuments still existing in Florida, according to an updated report from the Southern Poverty Law Center. The most notable recent removal of a Confederate monument in Florida took place in Jacksonville in late December, where after years of debate Mayor Donna Deegan ordered the removal of the “Tribute to the Women of the Southern Confederacy” monument, which had stood since 2015. “We have been very focused on this monument because there was so much concern about the injury that it was doing to the community at large, and especially to the Black community that had to see that all day long,” Deegan told reporters after the monument was removed. The Florida Legislature voted in 2016 to remove a statue of Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith that was placed in the Statuary Hall collection that represented Florida in the U.S. Capitol. They subsequently passed legislation in 2018 to replace it with a statue of Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune, who is perhaps best known for starting a private college for African American students in Daytona Beach. Sen. Martin concluded the discussion by saying that he was inspired to sponsor the proposal after seeing historical monuments being torn down around the country in 2020 and 2021, and said if the Legislature didn’t act now, “we are going to lose American monuments.” Martin added that some of the comments made by bill supporters “made him sick.” “This bill is not about white supremacy,” Martin said. “It’s not about southern culture. Yes, there are white supremacists who want history protected, just like there are some Black nationalists that want some history protected. Just like there’s Europeans who want some history protected, just like they’re Native Americans who want some history protected.” The final vote was 5-0, with the three Democrats: Berman, Osgood and Pizzo having left the dais before the vote was taken. Their removal appeared to insult Martin. “That’s the political grandstanding that has to stop,” he said, later adding, “Where are the Democrats? These are my colleagues. We work together on so many bills. And I’m disgusted that they’re gone right now.” [END] --- [1] Url: https://floridaphoenix.com/2024/02/06/fl-lawmakers-debating-a-bill-to-preserve-historical-monuments-led-to-anger-emotion-and-swearing/ Published and (C) by Florida Phoenix Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/floridaphoenix/