Virginia Governor VETOES Bill to Cancel Robert E Lee Plates

 

Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin announced this evening that he vetoed 48 bills today.  Among them are two, passed by Virginia democrats almost entirely along party lines, that would have prohibited the sale of General Robert E Lee and Sons of Confederate Veterans Specialty License plates, and removed the tax exempt status of several of Virginia's oldest historical societies, including the United Daughters of the Confederacy.   

His vetoes mean the license plates will still be available and the United Daughters of the Confederacy will NOT lose their tax exempt status.

The vetoes come on the heels of last weeks' decision by the Shenandoah County School Board to restore the Confederate names to two schools which had previously been changed, and as part of a growing push back against the left's ongoing WOKE attempts to erase the Commonwealth's history and heritage.  

In a foreshadowing of his decision, Youngkin offered this response when asked for his thoughts on the Shenandoah School Board vote:

In poll after poll, and vote after vote, the overwhelming majority of citizens of the Commonwealth have expressed the desire to end the cultural cleansing and destruction that former Governor Northam oversaw in his tenure, and sent a clear message in electing Youngkin that they wanted to see it reversed.  It appears that Youngkin chose to consider the will of the people over appeasing a radical few, joining his fellow Virginia Republicans in standing against the left's cancel culture war.

 

Virginia School Board Votes to Restore Confederate School Names

 

 

Meeting attendees bow for prayer before the Shenandoah County, VA  School Board meeting, May 9, 2024. 

Shortly after 12:30 am this morning, May 10, 2024, on the 161st Anniversary of the death of Stonewall Jackson, the Shenandoah County Public Schools Board voted to restore the names of the Southern Campus Schools to Ashby-Lee Elementary and Stonewall Jackson High School.

 

The motion passed via 5-1 vote with Kyle Gutshall casting the only NO vote.

 

The exact language of the motion that was approved was: “I move that the names of Stonewall Jackson High School and Ashby Lee Elementary School be restored to the schools now named Mountain View High School and Honey Run Elementary School respectively. The funds required to implement the restoration must be provided by private donations exclusively and not be borne by the school system or government tax funds, though the SCPS will oversee disbursements relating to restoration costs.”

In 2020, the school board renamed the schools, both in Quicksburg, in a move that saw board members cave to outside leftist extremists, ignored the will of local citizens, and was done without public input or notice. Since that decision, two election cycles have brought in six new school board members.

In the wake of the 2020 decision, public anger and outrage was channeled into action.  A group called the Coalition for Better Schools asked the board to restore the old names, citing the need to remember the area’s War Between The States history and a belief that the 2020 school board made the renaming decision in haste. In explaining the reasoning for their “yes” vote, most school board members said they believed the 2020 board had acted inappropriately in changing the names within a matter of days without enough community input.  

Across the Commonwealth, EVERY locality which has ever been allowed to vote, has voted in overwhelming majority to keep their Confederate monuments, school names, and references. Only those in cities and counties which did not allow the people to vote have been removed, yet the media and corrupt politicians will report that this is what the people want, despite all the polling data and referendums showing otherwise. 

The good people of Shenandoah County have had their voices heard, and the wrong has been righted.  Supporters vow that this is the first of many, many more such decisions to come.    

Democrats in Virginia Vote to Scrap Robert E. Lee License Plate

 

Legislation that would end Virginia’s issuance of two license plates that properly and rightfully honor Robert E. Lee as “The Virginia Gentleman” and spotlight the Sons of Confederate Veterans is headed to Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s desk. 

The bill is the second attempt by Del. Candi Mundon King, D-Prince William, to get rid of the Robert E. Lee plate, which was originally approved virtually unanimously by both parties in the General Assembly in 2007 but has now suddenly become the target of vicious attacks by democrats, who regurgitated the left's most popular FALSE narrative talking points in their comments during debate.

 “This bill is needed to help us end the false narrative of the Lost Cause and help us embrace the fact that General Lee was anything but a gentleman,” Mundon King said on the House floor earlier this month. “He was a traitor to this country, a brutal enslaver and not worthy of being celebrated on our license plate.” 

The only false narrative that needs to end is the one the left is pushing in their hate-fueled quest to smear our history, heritage, and the men who honorably served the Commonwealth.

Last year, Mundon King’s legislation failed in the Republican-controlled House of Delegates. But since then, Democrats have won narrow control over both legislative chambers, and on Tuesday, the Senate voted 21-17 to forward the proposal to Youngkin. 

The Republican governor will now have to decide whether to stand with history, tradition, those who elected him, and his own party, or side with radical democrats and sign the mean-spirited, despicable bill into legislation 

It won’t be the only bill dealing with Virginia’s Confederate history that the governor will have to make a decision on: On Monday, the Virginia House took a final vote on legislation that would strip the United Daughters of the Confederacy of a unique tax exemption written into state code that has allowed the organization to pay no property taxes on its Richmond headquarters for decades.

Republicans have largely opposed both measures, although a few Turncoats in the House joined with radical democrats to back the license plate bill, including Dels. Amanda Batten, R-James City; Rob Bloxom, R-Accomack; Carrie Coyner, R-Chesterfield; and A.C. Cordoza, R-Hampton.

On Tuesday, Sen. John McGuire, R-Goochland, said getting rid of the license plates would violate constitutional free speech protections because the license plate program overseen by the state Department of Motor Vehicles “is a modern-day courthouse square” where people can share their views. 

“If we pass this bill, a citizen will sue Virginia, and they will use this debate to show the intent of this bill is to kill speech because some in this body did not like the message,” he said. 

Del. Tim Griffin, R-Bedford, similarly argued in a House committee debate that the legislation constituted “viewpoint discrimination.” 

“The reason that we have First Amendment protections of speech in general is so that we protect speech that not everybody likes,” he said. “There’s an abortion plate on there that I find disgusting personally, but I’m not going to move to remove it just because I don’t agree with it.”

HB812 will recall the Robert E Lee and SCV specialty license plates. SB517 will unfairly yank the tax exempt status from several of Virginia’s honorable historical societies, including the United Daughters of the Confederacy. Contact Governor Youngkin TODAY and ask him to reject both of these vicious, partisan attacks by democrats on our history, heritage, and first amendment rights.

CONTACT:

Use this online form: https://www.governor.virginia.gov/communicating-with-the.../

Phone: 804-786-2211

Email: glenn.youngkin@governor.virginia.gov

Mailing Address:

Office of the Governor

P.O. Box 1475

Richmond, VA 23218

Seven Years Later: Chesapeake's Mega Flag Still Honors Local Soldiers

 

Seven years ago this past weekend, The Virginia Flaggers dedicated their 26th Roadside Memorial Battle Flag.  

The “Jackson Greys” Memorial Battle Flag was raised in a ceremony in Chesapeake, Virginia. 

The 8' x 8' Army of Northern Virginia flag still flies proudly, adjacent to the Chesapeake expressway, Route 168, a heavily traveled route to the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

The flag honors the Jackson Greys, Company A, of the 61st Virginia Infantry Regiment from the War for Southern Independence. The Jackson Greys were a company recruited from the Chesapeake Virginia area and named in honor of James W. Jackson, a Southern Martyr and hotel owner in Alexandria, Virginia who was killed by a group of Federal soldiers in his hotel while defending his property.

The Virginia Flaggers is a grass-roots organization dedicated to defending the honor of Virginia's Confederate Veterans, and pushing back against the left's vicious assaults on the Commonwealth's history and heritage, and desecration of our memorials and monuments.