![[Valid RSS]](https://web.archive.org/web/20240108205913im_/https://ocgnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/valid-rss-rogers.png "Validate my RSS feed")
By Ed Williams
We have collected almost 7,500 signatures to change or remove the Confederate carving on Stone Mountain. Today, The Confederate Carving on Stone Mountain has been re-branded with laser shows and animated with colored beams of lights. The Confederate carving is being glorified and celebrated as if the cause of the Civil War was not over.
Our goal is to make the Stone Mountain Confederate carving more inclusive and to change its designation.
Who should be included in the carving on Stone Mountain? Native Americans, African Americans, women, Lincoln, Sherman, Grant. The carving should be removed, if it cannot be made more representative of the Civil War history. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dl9Cw7G_oa0
The men in the Confederate carving on Stone Mountain were not from Georgia. The capitol of the Confederate States of America was not in Georgia. There were no battles in Georgia led by General Robert E. Lee, nor General Stonewall Jackson. There was no major Civil War battle at Stone Mountain. In addition, there were no soldiers buried at Stone Mountain Park. So why is Stone Mountain Park designated a Confederate Memorial?
We do not seek to destroy history, but to make it more inclusive and realistic. The defenders of the status quo, seek to re-brand the legacy of the Confederacy and the Civil War. The reality is that both the Union and Confederate monuments do not truly represent or do justice to our story. The Union won the war, the slaves were freed, and the Confederacy was re-admitted into the Union.
President Lincoln in his Gettysburg address reminded us that America was “…conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal”. The Confederate States of America sought to spread slavery and had it placed in the Confederate Constitution. Every time we go to war, we change history.
Ed Williams, Ed.D, is chair of Concerned Citizens for Effective Government
https://www.facebook.com/groups/ccegov/