Dallas' Confederate War Memorial Vandalized Days After City Council Votes to Remove It

The Confederate War Memorial next to the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center was vandalized over the weekend -- only days after the Dallas City Council voted to remove it from public view.The vandal or vandals tagged the western side of the 65-foot-tall obelisk, which bears the inscription, "The Confederate sabreur kissed his blade homeward riding on into the mouth of hell." Over that someone spray-painted what appeared to be the word "FUN." Beneath that, in similar capital red letters, someone painted an expletive altered to contain a reference to Ku Klux Klan; below that, the words "TRUMP" and "FREEDOM."The obelisk, which bears a Confederate State of America monogram, is topped with a statue of a Confederate soldier. Surrounding it are statutes of Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his generals, Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and Albert Sidney Johnston.The monument, which has historic protections, has stirred impassioned debate in Dallas in recent years as other cities, states and government entities have been forced to confront their longstanding symbols of the Confederacy.  Continue reading...