This wild Virginia newspaper column compares 'slave owner bashing' to holocaust denial


A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
Thank you for signing up to TheWeek. You will receive a verification email shortly.
There was a problem. Please refresh the page and try again.
There have been a lot of arguments made for preserving confederate statues. None of them are quite like this.
In response to Arlington County, Virginia's proposal to rename its Jefferson Davis Highway, local man Max Perrine has written a very questionable column for Virginia newspaper The Roanoke Times. His big concern? We've "had enough 'slave owner' bashing" and "are now going after confederate citizen memorials."
After introducing his point with a poorly worded non-question, Perrine goes on to point out that "12 of our presidents were slave owners to some degree." So do we want to "rename Washington ... 'Boss Hog City?,'" he asks. There are also dozens of other Washingtons around the country, and after weeding them out and "spending enough of our state/federal tax monies to remove all of our historic confederate citizen statues," Perrine claims "we might qualify for foreign aid." Things then get a tad wilder, as Perrine suggests "the History Altering Association" he apparently just created can "unite the Christians of the World" and "go to Egypt to start removing and relocating the pyramids and of the statues of the pharaohs."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
"Folks, crap happens," Perrine finishes his column, declaring "you can't erase history." Don't believe him? "Ask a Holocaust survivor or a close relative of one," Perrine says to wrap it all up. You can find the whole column here, if you want.
Continue reading for free
We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.
Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.