Charlie Daniels on Confederate Statues: ‘If You Don’t Like It, Don’t Look at It’
Charlie Daniels has weighed in on the raging debate about Confederate statues, saying they are historical markers and should not be removed.
Confederate monuments all over the United States have come under renewed scrutiny in the wake of the death of 32-year-old Heather Heyer, who was killed on Saturday (Aug. 13) during a "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Va., when one of the white supremacists who turned out to protest the planned removal of a Confederate monument drove his car at high speed into a crowd of counter-protesters.
According to CNN, Confederate statues have already been removed in Los Angeles, San Diego and Gainesville, with others in Tennessee, Florida, Maryland and Kentucky under intense debate. Speaking with NewsMax TV, Daniels came down firmly against removing the monuments.
"I mean, that's just what ISIS is doing over there in places ... there were pieces of history that they didn't like, so they're taking them down," he states.
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"What's it go to? Where does it stop? Is it gonna be Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, or are we headed into Jefferson and Washington, who were both slave owners," he continues, echoing the sentiments expressed by President Trump in a press conference following the violence in Charlottesville that sparked intense national debate.
Daniels argues that the statues don't condone history, they merely document it. He goes on to call Robert E. Lee "one of the most honorable people in our history. I know he fought for the Confederacy against the Union, but he was also asked to lead the Union troops," he states.
The 80-year-old country music icon offers a solution for those who don't like the history those monuments represent to many.
"If you don't like it, don't look at it," he reflects, adding that there are many elements of the culture that each of us is obliged to ignore every day.
"There's all kinds of symbols in this country that I don't like, but I'm not gonna go tear them down. I just don't look at them."
Blake Shelton, Kip Moore, Tim McGraw, Kacey Musgraves, Brothers Osborne and Wheeler Walker, Jr. are among the country singers who reacted to the violence in Charlottesville online.
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