Virginia Senators Attempt to Blackball Contractors
An open letter to Governor Glenn Youngkin asked for the names of the Virginia contractors and to remove them from the list of eligible businesses to contract with Virginia. The letter was penned by Virginia Senators-elect John McGuire and Glen Sturtevant and outgoing Virginia Senator Frank Ruff.
Those Senators were upset about the removal of a Confederate statue in Arlington National Cemetery. The federal government decided to remove the statue after a lengthy Congressional process and legal battle. Youngkin has expressed that the statue will be moved to New Market Battlefield State Historical Park.
On Tuesday the injection was lifted and the Confederate statue in Arlington National Cemetery will soon be removed by the Virginia contractors that hoped to remain anonymous. No secret can be held forever as Confederate enthusiasts were able to sneak a peak of the contractors at work on Monday.
Devon Henry of Team Henry Enterprises tipped his hand as one of the contractors removing the Confederate monument when he tweeted “Hey @GlenSturtevant, how would you feel if you found out that the contractor in question is also a VA GUBERNATORIAL APPOINTEE??? Would you request he be removed from serving the Commonwealth? This is extremely distasteful yet not surprising.”
Devon Henry serves on the Norfolk State University Board of Vistors in addition to being the owner of the company that removed the Confederate statues in Richmond and Charlottesville.
Glen Sturtevant and John McGuire assume office next month. Sturtevant represents a district South of Richmond and McGuire’s district is west of Richmond that stretches near Charlottesville and Lynchburg.
McGuire has declared himself a primary opponent of Congressman Bob Good. Good had been the most conservative member of Congress. McGuire could use this as a stunt in his run for a Congressional district that includes the city of Charlottesville, a city that has experienced violence from their efforts to remove Confederate statues.
In a ruling to lift the injunction on the Confederate statue removal, Judge Rossie Alston wrote, “This case essentially attempts to place this Court at the center of a great debate between individuals extolling the virtues, romanticism and history of the Old South… this Court’s disposition does not have to resolve this great debate but rather is decided on the relevant case law, statutory law and administrative direction which governs this Court’s decision.”
Judge Alston is a Trump appointee to the Federal court. His ruling seemed to be upset at the plaintiffs Defend Arlington. Last week, Defend Arlington was unsuccessful in arguing their case in a court in Washington DC and decided to file an injection in a Virginia court. Alston’s ruling on Tuesday lifted the injunction he original granted and said that Defend Arlington “stretched to the limit” and failed to notify the court about their other attempt to halt the removal in a DC court.
The irony is that Sturtevant has referred to the statue as a “Monument to Reconciliation” when the reality is that the statue has continued to drive a wedge between those that want to reconcile inequities that existed since the end of the Civil War and those that wish to ignore those inequities.
Read more by Goad Gatsby HERE
