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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsGeorgia state representative believes KKK wasn't racist, 'made a lot of people straighten up'
By Walter Einenkel
Georgias Tommy Benton has helped to introduce two bills this year, HR 1179 and HR 855. The first bill protects a Confederate veteran memorial and the latter makes sure that Confederate memorial day and Robert E. Lees birthday are both public and legal holidays. Why, you might wonder, would someone want to do that? Well, the argument is something usually about not forgetting history, wah wah, we lost a racist war being a bunch of racists. Now while that is the reason, there is something else at work, and always at work, when being involved in pro-Confederate propagandarevising the history of racism and the Southern way of life.
The Klan was not so much a racist thing but a vigilante thing to keep law and order, he said.It made a lot of people straighten up, he said. Im not saying what they did was right. Its just the way things were.
In state Rep. Tommy Bentons defense, hes kinda a racist. Bentons comments and proposed legislation came in response to state Senator Vincent Forts (D-Atlanta) proposed bill that would prohibit Georgia from formally recognizing Confederate States of America holidays. Fenton feels thats sort of like celebrating Saddam Husseins birthday every yearremember how much fun Saddam Hussein was? Tommy Benton does not like this proposed legislation.
Thats no better than what ISIS is doing, destroying museums and monuments, he said. I feel very strongly about this. I think it has gone far enough. There is some idea out there that certain parts of history out there dont matter anymore and thats a bunch of bunk.
And just when you think youre done with how backwards a state representative can be, theres thisBenton has also introduced a bill to re-rename old streets that used to be named after Confederate veterans. This includes a stretch now named after Martin Luther King, Jr. that was once named after a KKK leader.
The bill does not mention King, but it does set 1968 the year of Kings assassination as the time period from which renamings would be reversed.
Tommy Benton continues to fight a war lost in the 19th century.
phantom power
(25,966 posts)Laurian
(2,593 posts)How painfully eye opening is that?
SwankyXomb
(2,030 posts)when they're dangling at the end of a rope.
Dr. Strange
(25,921 posts)STFU Benton!
temporary311
(955 posts)but they made quite a few stretch out.
struggle4progress
(118,282 posts)JANUARY 29, 2016 BY BRYAN LONG
Georgia House Speaker David Ralston has remained silent as Rep. Tommy Benton bounces from one news outlet to another defending the Ku Klux Klan as not so much a racist thing and just a harmless vigilante group that made a lot of people straighten up.
While its up to voters in Rep. Bentons Jefferson district whether or not his neo-Confederate views represent them, its squarely on Speaker Ralstons shoulders as to whether Bentons views are OK with the Georgia GOP and the Georgia House of Representatives.
Yesterday Speaker Ralston attempted to dodge the issue completely.
In the heat of legislative sessions, it is not uncommon for hyperbole to enter into disagreements and discussions, Speaker Ralston told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. I always encourage members, in both chambers and in both parties, to ratchet down the language whenever possible ...
http://bettergeorgia.org/2016/01/29/speaker-david-ralston-silent-as-gop-lawmaker-blitzes-media-to-defend-kkk/
struggle4progress
(118,282 posts)Chris Joyner
January 29, 2016
... Benton is backwards, out of touch and wrong. Speaker Ralston can do something about it, Bryan Long, executive director of the progressive activist group Better Georgia, said in a robocall targeted for Ralstons Blue Ridge district.
Through his spokesman, Ralston declined to comment.
In a statement issued Thursday, Democratic Party of Georgia First Vice Chairman Nikema Williams called Bentons comments deplorable and questioned whether the retired middle school history teacher belongs in the House.
Benton is either an ill-informed student of history, or he has no conscience, Williams said. For over a century, the KKK has operated as a terrorist organization responsible for some of the most unimaginable violence in the country. In an era where communities are working together to bridge divides, Tommy Benton seems content with spewing the kind of half-witted hatred that divides. Benton should be ashamed and his party should denounce him ...
http://investigations.blog.ajc.com/2016/01/29/georgia-lawmakers-chairmanship-targeted-after-klan-comments/