ST. CLOUD, Fla. – A Confederate monument in St. Cloud’s Veterans Park was defaced, sparking conversation in the community about history, respect and how Americans reckon with a complicated past.
The meaning behind Confederate monuments and statues has been an ongoing debate for years. A lot of Confederate statues and monuments have already been relocated or reside in cemeteries or museums.
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But in St. Cloud, a city founded by Union veterans, Veterans Park is home to monuments representing both the Union and Confederate armies.
“F*** the Confederate Army,” and “F*** R.E. Lee” were the messages graffitied on the park’s Confederate memorial sometime this week.
The St. Cloud Parks and Recreation Department worked to clean the obelisk, which has the names of Confederate soldiers buried in Osceola County and quotes from prominent generals, like Robert E. Lee.
What was written started circulating on social media, with many people shocked to see someone would leave a message like that on a memorial for veterans, no matter the reasoning.
For Arturo Gonzalez, the act of defacing the monument, regardless of one’s feelings about the Confederacy, was not the right way to make a statement.
“I find it actually kind of sad. I know it’s a dark history in America and everything. But without our history, what are we going to learn from?” Gonzalez said.
“Study your history. I learned from it, Gonzalez added. ”You don’t have to blacklist it or anything like that. It’s something that shouldn’t be eyes closed on or anything like that. You learn from the past and you make a better future.”
For local veteran Alfredo, the vandalism hit especially hard with Memorial Day approaching.
“I think it’s a disgrace,” he said. “Well, it hurts because we deserve more respect than that.”
While Confederate monuments are sometimes considered controversial, Confederate soldiers are recognized on Memorial Day. Arlington National Cemetery includes them in its annual “Flags In” tradition. Florida also observes its own Confederate Memorial Day, held April 26.