GOP candidate wants to remove Byrd’s name from buildings in West Virginia

[TexasTowelie]

A Republican candidate for the West Virginia House of Delegates hopes to introduce a bill to remove the late U.S. Sen. Robert C. Byrd’s name from all public buildings and highways across the state.

Thomas Goodman, who’s running in the 37th District against incumbent Mike Pushkin, said Byrd’s affiliation with the Ku Klux Klan was grounds for scrubbing the senator’s name from more than 50 buildings, bridges and roads in West Virginia.

In the 1940s, Byrd applied for membership in the Ku Klux Klan and organized a 150-member Klan unit in Raleigh County. Later in life, he apologized, calling those actions the biggest mistake of his life.

“We’re living in this time where we’re trying to take these modern social standards and apply them retroactively over hundreds of years of American government,” Goodman said Thursday during a meeting with Gazette-Mail editors. “Because some of these issues are at the forefront of the national conversation, almost synonymously West Virginia’s and Senator Byrd’s past are mentioned in tandem. I think that’s an embarrassment.”

See more at: http://www.wvgazettemail.com/news-politics/20160922/gop-candidate-wants-to-remove-byrds-name-from-buildings-in-wv

[still_one]

1. He has a point. By the same token should the names of Jefferson, Wilson, and

others who if not outright racists, were bigoted and prejudiced, have their names also removed from buildings with their names on it?

If the names were put on those buildings because of their racist views, then without doubt they should be removed.

I guess the argument could be advanced, if the naming was to honor the person for the work they did for the benefit of all demographics in that state or country, then maybe it would be considered palatable.

Then again we can look at the likes of a Mussolini who supposedly made the trains run on time, and that view would not be so charitable

Its an issue that came to light when Colin Kaeperneck refused to stand for the national anthem. It was an issue when some Southern states removed the confederate flag from public buildings.

The ghosts of our past are coming back to haunt us perhaps

[dhill926]

2. Shrewd, in an asshole republican way…