Bunch says The Woodlands could be home -- in a museum -- for removed statues

Gordy Bunch, chairman of The Woodlands Township Board of Directors, proposes Confederate monument statues taken down around the state should be relocated to The Woodlands, during a Texas Patriots PAC meeting, Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2017, in The Woodlands. less Gordy Bunch, chairman of The Woodlands Township Board of Directors, proposes Confederate monument statues taken down around the state should be relocated to The Woodlands, during a Texas Patriots PAC meeting, ... more Photo: Jason Fochtman, Staff Photographer Photo: Jason Fochtman, Staff Photographer Image 1 of / 24 Caption Close Bunch says The Woodlands could be home -- in a museum -- for removed statues 1 / 24 Back to Gallery

Monuments and statues of Confederate soldiers that are being taken down in Texas and elsewhere could find a new home in The Woodlands under an offer by The Woodlands Township Board Chairman Gordy Bunch.

During a meeting of the Texas Patriots PAC Tuesday night in The Woodlands, Bunch, in response to comments made by state Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, during a talk to the group reiterating his opposition to a move to have the statues and at least one plaque removed, stood up and announced The Woodlands might be a place to relocate the statues.

"What's happening across the state and across the country is ridiculous regarding eliminating history," Bunch said. "We don't have a lot of history here in The Woodlands because we're only 42, 43 years old. For all these folks in Dallas, in Austin and San Antonio and other places looking to relocate their history, might I suggest they can take those assets over here."

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His offer was greeted by applause from most of the 60 or so people attending the gathering, and received the endorsement of Creighton.

"Great suggestion," Creighton said.

Bunch later clarified that his only interest in removed statues would be as part of a museum. In August, The Woodlands Township announced a new fine arts museum, which is expected to open in November, and other types of museums are on the table as well.

"Preserving history in museums so future generations can learn from the past failures is important," Bunch stated in an email to The Courier.

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However, Bunch reiterated that the township has not made any offer to relocate statues; and based on feedback Wednesday night, he doesn't see any circumstance where these types of statues everl will be in The Woodlands.

"These very divisive items can be used to educate the public on the horrible history of slavery and the Civil War if there were a Civil War museum which would articulate the conflict in total," Bunch stated.

Marc Meyer, chairman of the Montgomery County Democratic Party, isn't cheering the offer, arguing that he's not aware of any Confederate cemetery in Montgomery County or of any local connection to the Confederacy.

"I cannot for the life of me understand why anyone would want to bring those monuments to The Woodlands or Montgomery County, period," Meyer said.

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Still, Creighton, R-Conroe, has pledged to fight attempts to remove what he's described as "historical monuments" from Texas Capitol grounds and other statues of historical significance.

During the Legislature's special session this summer, Creighton had introduced a bill that would have banned the removal, altering or renaming of any statue or historical structure that has been on public ground for more than 40 years. That bill never made it out of committee before the rush to conclude the session, with Creighton describing the measure as being "crowded out."

Earlier in Tuesday's talk, Creighton blasted the removal of a statue of a Confederate soldier from a park in San Antonio, the taking down of a Robert E. Lee statue from a park in Dallas last week, and other attempts to get rid of similar statues.

"We're not leaving it up to parents and educators and grandparents and those visiting the Capitol grounds to teach right and wrong based on history, when we're taking these monuments down and melting them down," Creighton said.

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Meanwhile, the controversy over Confederate statues continues to heat up after a powerful Texas Republican called for the removal of a Confederate marker in the state Capitol that rejects slavery as an underlying cause of the Civil War.

Republican House Speaker Joe Straus said Tuesday in a letter to state officials that the plaque, titled "Children of the Confederacy Creed," is "blatantly inaccurate." The plaque, installed in 1959, is one of nearly a dozen Confederate monuments and markers around the Texas Capitol.

In making the call for its removal, Straus becomes the most prominent Texas Republican to call for removing a Confederate marker or statue.

He joins sides with Texas state Rep. Eric Johnson, a Democrat from Dallas, who has been seeking to have all symbols that represent the Confederacy removed from state Capitol grounds, Johnson finds particularly objectionable a plaque at the Texas Capitol that disputes the South's attempt to secede from the Union was based on its differences with the North over slavery. He describes the plaque as "not historically accurate in the slightest."