I wrote a "letter to the editor" to respond to this story. I believe that the Journal story was VERY biased toward the position of the statue removers.
2. Page 136 - Civil War - Jessamine County was "divided" by the war, "many of its citizens took up arms both in the Federal and Confederate armies."
NOTE: The following pages go on to explain the dedication of the monument (page 139), how the Confederate dead came to be buried at the cemetery, a list of those buried (page 140), a lengthy quote from Bennett Young's dedication speech (page 140-141).
And finally, when statue removers tell you that they want a statue "removed", they really mean that they want it destroyed. Case in point, this removed statue of Robert E. Lee has been recently melted down.
If you need to speak with me my name is Bob Barney, and my phone number is (859) 858-9030, cell phone is (859) 552-4644 and my email address is bob@compulife.com. I am happy to answer any questions you may have.
NEW: On Tuesday, June 27, 2023 a story about the efforts of a group of pastors to have the statue removed appeared in the Jesammine Journal.
Click Here to see the June 27th Jessamine Journal Story.
MORE NEW: Since my letter to the editor, the Jessamine Journal has REVISED their story and made additions. There is no explanation for this in the story. I then wrote another email to the Jessamine Journal, and received this response:
Click Here to read my letter to the editor, sent by email, and the response to my followup letter.
Click Here to see the June 27th Jessamine Journal Story BEFORE it was REVISED.
ORIGINAL STORY: Group of pastors leading effort to remove confederate statue in Jessamine County
Click Here to read that June 9th story.
Click Here for another June 9th story (LEX 18).
Click Here to see the pastors on video explain their reasons to remove the statue.
On Tuesday, June 20, 2023 the Jessamine County Fiscal Court met and the court received comments from the public on the matter of the statue removal. 3 minutes were given to each person who wished to speak on the matter.
Click Here to read my 3 minute oral presentation at the meeting.
Prior to my 3 minute oral presentation to the Fiscal Court on June 20th, I had prepared a much longer written presentation for the County Judge Executive and Magistrates which was given to them on the prior weekend. Here is that written presentation:
Jessamine County Statue Presentation by Bob Barney
Attachments to the Presentation
During the course of debates with those supporting removal of the statue, there have been some who mention, in a negative light, the involvement of Bennett H. Young in the original dedication of the statue. Young was a prominent Kentuckian with roots in Jessamine County. Young was a Confederate army veteran and author of the 1898 book:
There are a number of interesting and related sections of the book. They are:
1. Page 126 - photo of the Court House, circa 1989, showing the statue in its current location.
3. Page 137 - Confederate Monument - "The handsomest public monument in Jessamine county is that erected by the Jessamine Confederate Memorial Association to the Confederates buried in Maple Grove cemetery, Nicolasville."
A "fair" reading of the portion of the book which deals with the statue does not show that it was erected to make a statement about race, hatred or slavery. It was, in fact, a monument to dead Confederate soldiers and the memory of their sacrifice in war. In particular I was taken by the involvement of the women, widows and mothers of Confederate veterans, who were involved in the establishment of the memorial. I think it is highly disrespectful to their memory to now be talking so cavalierly about removing what they worked so hard to erect.
Click Here or on the image for that story.