You can also send us a text, that number 202 7488003. Please include your name or where you are from. Therwise on social media a very good thursday morning. You can start calling you now. To let you know where we are on capitol hill, the houses and at 9 00 a. M. Eastern, the senate is in at 10 00 a. M. Eastern. President trump headed to wisconsin to participate in a town hall and visit a shipbuilding firm. We do not know when that promised executive order on mound events and statues will on monuments and statues will come but the president had plenty to say at the white house yesterday. [video clip] we will have a strong executive order. We have the monuments act, which means 10 years in jail. We will have a strong executive order, i should have that by the end of the week. We will have a very powerful statement. We have arrested numerous people for what took place outside of washington. In addition, the fbi is investigating hundreds of people throughout the country for what they have done to monuments, statues, and buildings. We have strong laws already on the books. Time to, that is a long have fun one night. Many of the people knocking down these statues do not have any idea what the statue is, what it means, who it is. When they knocked down grant, they want to knock down grant. Now theyre looking at jesus christ. Theyre looking at george washington. They are looking abraham lincoln. Thomas jefferson. Not going to happen. Not going to happen. Not as long as im here. As far as democrats are concerned they could care less whether or not it happens. The American People get it. Host President Trump from the white house yesterday. He was talking about laws on the books already. He is referring to the Veterans Memorial preservation act passed in 2003 in the wake of a rash of vandalism incidents at military cemeteries. Here is an abc news fact check about what that act actually does. Here is the text of the act as cited in that story. Whoever willfully injures or attempts to destroy any structure, plaque, statue, or other monument on public property commemorated the service of any person or persons in the armed forces of the United States shall be fined title, imprisoned not more than 10 years, or both. Statues commemorating historical figures such as Christopher Columbus or Francis Scott key would not apply, since they never served in the armed forces. Though plenty of statues of members of the confederacy have come down in recent weeks since the protests began. Here is a map from abc news about some of the places where specifically confederate statues have been taken down. This map a few days old at this point. The red on this map indicating statues removed by protesters. The black statues that are scheduled to be removed, the blue, statues that have been removed legally by state and local governments. Abc putting together that map. We are asking you about this recent effort to remove statues and monuments. Wondering what you think, where you would draw the line. Of the efforts out of north carolina. Support terry down statues. The only statue i would like to the statue of liberty is a gift to this country. A time where people came to Opportunity One blacks did not have any. That should be torn down. Host this is dan from north little rock, arkansas on the line from those who oppose the reason efforts. Good morning. Caller yes. Am i on . Host yes, sir. Caller i oppose it. I think they should be guarded and i think the people that has done that should be caught and that is theison, only way you will stop it. They are wrecking americas past is what they are doing. I wish trump would do something about it. That is all i have to say. Thank you, sir. Host you say they should be guarded. In washington, d. C. , more are being guarded by members of the national guard. Activates 400 unarmed guard members to protect d. C. Monuments. Those 400 unarmed members of the washington, d. C. National guard activated to prevent any defacing or destruction of monument according to defense officials. The story from the Washington Post noting interior secretary David Bernhardt requested the guardsmen to bolster the National Park police according to air force Sergeant Eric klapper. The guardsmen posted in armory in d. C. Awaiting directions on where and when they will be used. Some guardsmen mobilized had transitioned back to supporting efforts to fight the coronavirus pandemic, now returning to civil disturbance missions in washington, d. C. Tyrone out of michigan. Good morning. Caller good morning. Can you hear me . Host yes. Caller i think all of the statues of the people who declared war against the United States should be taken down. I am not in favor of destroying them, but i feel they should be taken down and put in a museum instead of being out for the public to see them like that. ,f you want to go and see them you can charge admission to those museums and stuff like that. Thatnk everyone of them commemorates people who went to war against this country should be taken down. That is my comment. Host before you go, we are asking where folks draw the line. I want to ask you about John C Calhoun. He died before the civil war in 1850, but with his proslavery doctrine one of those who let the south towards secession. This is a story from the Washington Times about the effort in charleston, South Carolina, to take down that calhoun statute that sits in the center of charleston. Although he was not in time when war was declared, is that when you would be ok taking down . Yes. R i think the people of charleston have spoken. They came together and said that needs to go. Im in favor of that one being taken down as well. Host Charleston City Council and mayor voted unanimously on tuesday to move it to inappropriate site where it will be protected and preserved. Actions therethe in South Carolina. The removal process taking several hours. This week, 16 hours according to the Washington Times story. Ralph is next in washington, d. C. , where a lot of the interest in this story is taking place. Ralph, go ahead. Caller i am watching this, and you have zealots deciding based upon their personal beliefs that i am going to go out and personally remove something if i do not like it. Remember the taliban when they were blowing up those historic statues based upon their belief of the new muslim order we have the truth and everybody else who disagrees should be destroyed. Lets take a look of the cultural revolution in china. You have something similar to what we have today. We want to destroy our past history, wipe it out, because we have the truth. We will go through and we will purge everybody. What gets me is where you have mayors who are like we have a riding mob who decided we want to get rid of something, and im in agreement with them. You do not have the right to be in agreement with them. You have a right to enforce the laws. If you want to have that removed , you go through Legal Process and you do it properly. How about if we got some guy what if we get theyre are only a few of them left, some right wing bigots who decide i will take down the Martin Luther king statue or i will take down this other statue. How would you feel about that . Lawcannot have rules of being disobeyed because somebody host your delegate in the District Of Columbia is working to remove several statues in the city. Andrew jackson is one she is specifically talking about legislation to take that down, and also the emancipation statue in linkin park, you can see the picture of that statue. Abraham lincoln standing over a freed slave. Would you be ok if it went through that process, if your delegate proposed legislation and one about that wipe . Caller i would be all right with it. Let me say this. When you have zealots, even in office, we had mayor bowser criticized the president. She was sitting there watching our city burn. Because she agrees with some of the antifa thugs from the suburbs, most of the kids came from the suburbs, they were white kids burning down shops. She sat back and she was criticizing trump when he sent out troops. I do not like trump, but i do not like zealots burning in writing and smashing people in the face because they have a handle on the truth. , they only have one trick in their bag. Hat is victimization the d. C. Government, they want statehood, but the only excuse they have is we are victims. It is insane. Host ralph in washington, d. C. We talked to congresswoman Eleanor Holmes norton on this program yesterday about her d. C. Statehood bill, and you can watch that online if you want to see that interview. I want to play part of the interview in which we ask her about statue and monument removal in the district. This is what she had to say. [video clip] legislationlike by to do what the people are apparently trying to do in a virtual revolutionary act, and that is to take down the statues of confederate soldiers and confederate generals who betrayed their country. That says a lot about washington, d. C. You can do everything you want to do here. Some of these, because it was controlled by the federal some of the statues are on d. C. Land, if there on federal land, i have introduced bills that would take peopleose statues so the do not have to do it themselves. Youve been watching tv, they have been doing it night after night. The pike statue was the most notorious because he betrayed his own soldiers. They themselves tried to get rid of him. Was prominently displayed in the District Of Columbia and the people were able to bring down the statue. They have not been able to take down all of the statues. I think it is up to the congress of the United States to do that job. Host what is the emancipation statue in lincoln park and why would you want that taken down . Guest the emancipation statue depicts a slave kneeling at the foot of abraham lincoln. It is just the kind of depiction to the segregation and the denial of full equality for the africanamericans in our country. I do not want these statues, even the most notorious of them, simply taken down. I want them put in a museum and i want that statue putting a museum. We need to learn from our history. The way to learn from our history is not to destroy it. Put it where people can see it and learned what it stood for and how far we have come. Nortonleanor holmes yesterday on this program. One more note on the emancipation statue in lincoln park on capitol hill. This is the plaque on that statue. It says it grateful memory of abraham lincoln, this monument was erected by the western Sanitary Commission of st. Louis, missouri with funds contributed solely by emancipation sit by emancipated citizens of the United States declared free by his proclamation, january 1, 1863. That is that statue Eleanor Holmes norton was talking about. Christopher from orangeburg, South Carolina on the line for those who support the recent actions. Go ahead. Caller good morning. I am a history teacher, im a historian. I do support the statues being removed. Host why is that . Caller there are a couple of reasons. I will try to be quick. The first is you cannot teach history through a statue without conceptualization. If i show you a statue and do not tell you anything, the only history you will learn is somebody decided whoever that was needed a statue. The other big reason, especially with these confederate monuments, is they were built about 70 years after the civil war in places with large black nadirations during the of Race Relations. That was a time when where the Race Relations were going very badly. They were built as a reminder, to remind the local people who was in charge. Who still has the power in your city. The only other thing i wanted to say was two quick things. When it comes to raising history, nobody wants to erase the history. We want to teach the history. I studied one of the big historians for lee. We want to teach who these people really were. That means to stop line icing them. The other thing is there is to stop lionizing them. There is a guy named long street you never hear about. He was lees second hand man. He was considered a strategic and tactical very brilliant. You never see him. The reason for that is after the war long street supported full reconciliation, he supported desegregation, he supported making sure blacks have the same rights as whites. The lost cause theorists and those historians erased him and they said he was a traitor to the south, etc. , you setore you go your in favor of taking down confederate statues. Where do you draw the line after that . There has been calls to take down Christopher Columbus statues. There been calls to take down Thomas Jefferson statues because he was a slaveholder. Is ais the line you think fair and rational line . Caller of fair and rational line is when you look at the context of the people in their time. This is an argument that comes ata lot you have to look in the context of their time. The pope looked at how bad columbus was. People look at his slave, sally hemmings. Looking at people in the context of the time, there were always abolitionists. There were people who were rebelling against these. We have people who we can make statues to in the same period who did these great things that did not do the horrible things. Christopher columbus could be replaced by amerigo vespucci. I say that as an italianamerican and a historian. Host thanks for the call out of South Carolina. You mentioned abolitionists. The statue of one prominent abolitionist in wisconsin was taken down this past week. This is a story out of the milwaukee journal sentinel. During chaos at the Wisconsin State Capitol on tuesday night, protesters tore down two statues that have stood in front of the statehouse for decades, including one memorializing a wisconsin abolitionist who died trying to end slavery during the civil war. His name was Hans Christian heg. The story talks about his service during the civil war. He died fighting for the union. He chased a retreating infederate army in georgia 1863. He was leading a charge in front of his troops when he was shot in the abdomen. He died the next morning. Monumentlar pyramid marks the spot where he was mortally wounded according to the National Park service. Statueory about the heg that has been taken down from the milwaukee. Howard from texas for those who oppose the recent efforts. Go ahead. Destructionpose the of public property and private property. That is the wrong way to go about it. There are legal ways to do it. Alan from brooklyn new york. You are next on the line for those who support. Caller good morning. I have a basic view that it is positive for us to remove offensive statues. I have great concern about the speed and process we are using. Remember the Robert Mueller report did say in 2016 russia worked hard on the web to magnify issues that were going to divide americans. He said they were going to continue doing it. To bencern is that happening now. The problem is not the desire to remove offensive statues, but if we do things too rapidly this is something that will divide us and force racial divisions to the fore in an election that could otherwise give us a fair consideration of americas two candidates. We do not want to have the merits of the candidates replaced with a supercharged racial identity agenda. That is what this could create if we remove these things and too much haste without an adequate process. Think of what monuments are. They are the physical constitution of our country. We do not amend the constitution rapidly, especially public spaces. These are things that are not changed in rapid fashion. We should not be rushing to do any of this without thinking about the consequences for the opposite side and for understanding of the history that got us here. If we will do this examination about monuments, we should be doing it about the effects of messages in media and entertainment and asked how much of media is now reflecting the people in society and how much is creating or magnifying it. If we will do that with monuments, we should be doing it with all forms of public expression, not to censor them, but to discuss and analyze them and analyze what we are hoping to achieve. We need to educate people in the best and most time sensitive way ,ossible, not just with statues but with everything we are doing in the public realm. Host thanks for the call from brooklyn, new york. The front page of the Washington Times on the politics of this dispute over monuments and statues. The headline, trump will point to desecration of statues in campaign against democrat role. Against democrat rule. Democrat operatives saying the strategy of highlighting this favors the president in his battle with joe biden after the turbulent months with covid19 and economic shut down. The longer this goes on, the better off trump is in terms of campaign prospects, said a republican strategist. People will not suffer property destruction for a long period of time. He says drawing a redline on monuments could be a powerful issue for President Trump in battleground states, especially arizona, florida, pennsylvania, michigan, and wisconsin. Wisconsin where the president is scheduled to visit today. Taking your calls and also comments on social medias. On facebook, confederate statues, yes, take them down. Others come it depends. Jackson, yes, washington no, jefferson no, grant no. Aaron, i support mostly, not the ones youre are tearing down. Grant was a union leader. Who supportseryone criminal acts are also supporting criminals. Democratic leaders have not announced these acts, thus they support criminals. Democratic leaders talking a