On Wednesday, February 22, 2017, alongside Mr. McCallister, I would attend an Open Forum titled "Commission In the Community" for District 5 of the Hollywood, Florida community, where residents would ask questions, and share suggestions, or concerns relating to city services, programs, or events. The Honorable District 5 Commissioner Kevin Biederman would facilitate the meeting. Residents , and non residents wishing to speak would be asked to fill out a speaker card that would include who they were, their current address, and to pose a question, or comment on what issue they were to speak about.
Mr. Edgerton addressing Hollywood City Commission
February 22, 2017
It is important to mention that while Mr. McCallister and I had come to speak against the proposed name changes of Forest, Lee, and Hood streets (last names of Confederate Generals ); that I found myself confounded by the hypocrisy present as we passed on our way to the meeting:
Grant Street - Union General who had among other things, burned 42 cities in the Great State of Mississippi, and had ordered many a Black Union soldier into suicide missions in his war of attrition . (see the Battle of the Crater);
Sheridan Street - Union General Sheridan had burned the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia, and in doing so had remarked that a crow flying over had better pack his bags and lunch because there would be nothing left; and
Sherman Street - William T. Sherman went into the White House to meet with Lincoln, came out, and gathered his men, telling them that he had orders from their Commanding Chief to take the theater of war to the front door of the civilian population of the South. To commit total warfare against them; to burn, murder, rape and plunder at will, and that there would never be an accounting for what they did.
I could only think that anyone who calls themselves Southern and would sanction this content discrimination (and the removal of these men who had befriended the African people, and given up so much in the defense of the South) carry nothing but shame for themselves and their families. And, much like the press in Gainesville had done, the media had brought forth a scraggly Black man who of all things would hail from the State of New York, and emboldened him to be the self-anointed spokesman for the Black community of Hollywood who wanted the street names changed that carried the names of Forest, Hood, and Lee. This foul mouth antagonist would began his diatribe by equating the Honorable General Robert E. Lee as a "traitor", "ANIMAL" and "subhuman trash" who beat his slaves everyday. And that his Generals were more of the same who fought to maintain the economic institution of slavery. Mr. McCallister would have to restrain me because I believe for the very first time; I had lost it. This man had crossed the line with his character assassination of one of the most honorable men who had ever come to the Almighty God's earth.
Editor's Note:
Watch rant of NY Yankee, Ben Israel, at the Hollywood City Commission meeting here