LAKE COUNTY, Fla. — A controversial Confederate statue has become a bit of a political football in Lake County as people on both sides claim it's being used to promote agendas.
- Statue of Edmund Kirby Smith was originally in DC
- Eustis commissioner says statue bothers black community
- Government watchdog feels it should be in a museum
There are three main players in this: the statue the Confederate soldier, a former courthouse turned history museum, and Lake County residents, some of whom want the statue and others who do not.
The statue is of Edmund Kirby Smith, a Confederate general during the Civil War. The statue stood for 100 years under the Capitol in Washington D.C.
It was recently taken down and replaced by a statue of a civil rights activist.
Recently, the Lake County History Museum board applied to take the statue and got it.
"I think that historical objects belong in a museum. That's what I'm defending," government watchdog Vance Jochim said. "I don't want it removed from our school books, I don't want it removed from our museums either."
On the other side of the issue is Eustis Commissioner Robert Morin.
"The thought of bringing a Confederate statue to Lake County really bothers a lot of our African American population and also a lot of creative thinkers like myself," he said.
Morin and his wife, Tina, say those involved in the process of bringing the statue are using tactics that do not represent the majority of views in Lake County.
"I think that as an elected official, you should be doing what your people want you to do, and the majority of people do not want the statue in Lake County," Tina Morin said.
Lawmakers from six Lake County cities also passed resolutions against having the statue come to the county. They include the cities of Eustis, Taveres, Clermont, Groveland, Mount Dora, and Leesburg.
Some, like Jochim, say this is pure politics.
"The people who are complaining, most of them don't live in Tavares, and yes they're Democrats. They are just trying to follow the party line and in my opinion, dividing everybody so they can get their supporters inflamed," he said.