See article below:
Controversial Ga. lawmaker punished for Civil War
mailer, by Chris
Joyner, 6/16/17 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Georgia
Politics and Government
This article, “The
Absurdity of Slavery as the Cause of the War between the States” by Gene Kizer
Jr, was sent to members of the House, including Speaker David Ralston.
A controversial member of the Georgia
House of Representatives has lost his position in leadership and his place on a
civics education study committee after sending colleagues an article
challenging slavery as the root cause of the Civil War.
House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue
Ridge, announced Friday that Rep. Tommy Benton, R-Jefferson, would no longer
chair the House Human Relations and Aging Committee, a post he has held for the
past five years. In addition, Ralston announced he was rescinding his nomination of Benton to fill one of three seats on a study
committee set up to recommend improvements in civics education
in Georgia’s public schools.
Rep.
Tommy Benton, R-Jefferson, was stripped of his leadership position Friday after
a mailing an article to colleagues challenging that slavery was a root cause of
the Civil War. BOB ANDRES / BANDRES@AJC.COM Bob Andres/The Atlanta
Journal-Constitution
House spokesman Kaleb McMichen said
Ralston received a package from Benton Friday containing an article titled “The
Absurdity of Slavery as the Cause of the War Between the States.”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has
seen a mailer sent to another House member, which includes the printed
inscription “Thought this might be of interest to you” above Benton’s
signature.
Benton has courted controversy over the
past two years with provocative comments about the Civil War, race relations
and the Ku Klux Klan. In an interview with the AJC
published in January 2016,
Benton said the Klan “was not so much a racist thing but a vigilante thing to
keep law and order.”
“It made a lot of people straighten up,”
he said. “I’m not saying what they did was right. It’s just the way things
were.” Benton also suggested that criticism of
the Confederate flag was a distraction from “black-on-black crime” and he
sponsored bills to force the state to recognize Confederate Memorial Day,
Robert E. Lee’s birthday and prohibit the moving of Confederate monuments.
Throughout, Ralston had refrained from directly
chastising Benton by name, and earlier this month, the speaker
named Benton, a retired middle school teacher, to the study committee.
Apparently, the mailer was the final
straw. When asked if Ralston disagreed with Benton’s distribution of the
article, McMichen said, “The actions he has taken reflect his sentiments on
this matter.”
Ralston
“is focused on the future, not the past,” he said. Re. Eddie Lumsden,
R-Armuchee, will take over as chair of Benton’s committee. House Education
Committee Chairman Brooks Coleman, R-Duluth, will serve in Benton’s place on
the civics study committee.
It
is not clear if Benton used his taxpayer-funded office account to mail the
article to House members or which House members received it. McMichen referred
those questions to Benton.
Comments
There are always two sides to any war and the Civil War is
no exception. Both sides should be buttressed with the facts. The Left prefers
revisionist history and opposes any effort to present both sides of the Civil
War. We should not be so quick to appease the Left. Their real target is our Founders. The want
to close our history museums and replace town square statues with statues of
Mao, Chavez, Castro, and every other Communist “hero” that ever lived. The purpose of studying history is to determine the mistakes
that were made and make sure we don’t repeat them.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party
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