On August 28, 2009, Responsible for Equality And Liberty’s (R.E.A.L.) Jeffrey Imm spoke to visitors at the Robert E. Lee Memorial in Arlington, Virginia — calling for an end to the nostalgia over Confederate symbols of division and calling for a national healing of America’s differences over race.
In his primary statement “We Have A Responsibility,” he recalled the historic call for civil rights by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on August 28, 1963 “I Have A Dream,” and called for America to finish the efforts made in promoting equality and liberty for people of all races, by challenging those who would promote the symbols of America’s past division that remain symbols of oppression, terror, and hate. He urged Americans to put such divisions past them, to reject the promotion of such symbols of division, and to “choose love, not hate.”
[Text of “We Have A Responsibility” — Video of “We Have A Responsibility”]
Jeffrey Imm at Robert E. Lee Memorial - August 28, 2009
He called for the creation of a new monument representing our “universal human rights of equality and liberty” where the Robert E. Lee Memorial now stands on the hilltop of Arlington, Virginia overlooking Washington DC, and the Arlington National Cemetery, where he also stated in other remarks that “so many have made the ultimate sacrifice for our equality and liberty today.”
He recounted the continuing growth of Neo-Confederate hate groups and other racial supremacist hate groups throughout America, and the continuing racial supremacist violence and hate-mongering as a reason to make such a commitment to a monument for equality a priority for the nation’s capital. He pointed to the recent history of racial supremacist activity in Virginia, and recent terrorist attack on the Holocaust Memorial Museum.
In other remarks, he pointed to the VDARE organization promoting Confederate symbols of division and Robert E. Lee’s birthday and other Confederate leaders, as the same organization that continues to ridicule people of different races, to rationalize “white nationalism,” and that used the Holocaust Memorial Museum terror attack as a justification to condemn those who seek to prevent hate crimes. He urged that we promote equality for all Americans, and defend America’s inherent values in our Declaration of Independence that “all men are created equal, a truth that we hold self-evident.”
He concluded with a prayer for all those who hate, urging them to lift the hate from their hearts, and to choose love. He also prayed for Senator Ted Kennedy and his family. Senator Kennedy died this week and is to be buried in Arlington National Cemetery down the hill from Robert E. Lee Memorial on Saturday, August 29.
The Robert E. Lee Memorial
Looking over the Lincoln Memorial where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Spoke on August 28, 1963
on top of the hill overlooking our nation's capital
and overlooking those who made the ultimate sacrifice for America
Yet even today, in this 21st century, the Robert E. Lee Memorial continues to stand as a symbol nostalgic about our past differences and divisions…
Sold in the Robert E. Lee Memorial's bookstore
Our campaign as an organization, Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.), is to continue to promote equality and liberty — for Americans and for all human beings….
R.E.A.L.'s Orange Ribbon Campaign for Equality And Liberty