There may be a backlash forming in the City Council against the unending demands from the Far Left.
The local signs mirror what may be major turning points nationally.
The first of those is the Republican win in Virginia, a clear repudiation of the liberal agenda.
In addition, Minneapolis voters turned down a proposal to abolish their police department and replace it with a “woke” bureau.
In Jacksonville, the local cancel culture has been insisting for months that all public statues they disapprove of should be torn down.
But this week, two council committees voted against tearing down a statue in Springfield Park that honors women and children who lost loved ones in war.
The Neighborhoods Committee of Jacksonville City Council voted 4-1 to defeat an ordinance that would set aside $1.3 million to remove the statue and a few hours later, the Transportation Committee defeated the bill by a vote of 4-2.
Council Member Randy Defoor voted against the funding, pointing out that it is a monument honoring women and children, which is something supporters from both sides of the issue should be able to agree upon.
Council Member Aaron Bowman agreed that because the statue features a woman rather than a Confederate soldier or other military reminders of the Civil War, it does not need to be removed.
“Look, the Civil War was absolutely horrible. The fact that we had slavery; the fact that we had to fight over slavery. It (was) a terrible time in our history. Any monument out there that represents support of that, it absolutely has no place anywhere, especially on public property,” Bowman said.
“This monument is completely different. It shows the war and the casualty of war to the entire community and the entire family. This is not about the Civil War at all, but it’s how we try to resolve something without conflict.”
Liberal Democrat Joyce Morgan, the only member to vote for removal at both the committee meetings, tried to justify the expense. In the Transportation Committee, Morgan was joined by Council Member Matt Carlucci in voting to spend the money.
Morgan said. “I think the biggest thing to me is there was no discussion at all … because we have listened to our community talk about this for weeks. But yet when we get to vote on it, there is no discussion.”
That’s because it has been debated endlessly and there is little left to discuss.
Liberals are using public art in their effort to convince people that there is “systemic racism” in Jacksonville, which means that all white residents of the city are racists. They would have people believe that people with black skin are not and cannot be racist.
They seek to divide the city in the way Democrats have been seeking to divide the country along racial lines.
A majority of the council should vote with the two committees and further help the nation regain some semblance of sanity.
