“If we do not honor our past, we lose our future. If we destroy our roots, we cannot grow.”
— Friedensreich Hundertwasser
Via Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
The Georgia House voted Thursday to increase the penalties against those who damage the state’s public and private monuments — and make it more difficult to remove or relocate Confederate markers. It passed 100-71. The bill’s sponsor, Chickamauga Republican state Sen. Jeff Mullis, has said he proposed Senate Bill 77 “to protect all monuments.”
The legislation now heads back to the Senate, which will have to approve changes that were made to the bill in the House. One Senate Democrat voted in favor of SB 77 when it was approved on a party-line vote earlier this month.
While discussing the bill in the House, state Rep. Alan Powell played a slideshow of damaged monuments from World War I, cemeteries and the Peace Monument in Piedmont Park.
“This bill is about inclusion, diversity and tolerance,” the Hartwell Republican said. “This isn’t about Confederate monuments, its about all monuments.” Powell said vandalizing monuments has become the “chic” thing to do. “It’s not civil disobedience — it’s a crime,” he said.
The legislation requires a vandal must pay up to three times the cost of the damage and legal fees. Currently, if a vandal is caught and charged, a judge determines whether he or she would have to pay for the repair or replacement of a monument.
Bills trying to remove or give local governments the right to remove Confederate monuments have been filed in recent years, but have gone nowhere in the General Assembly.