Landmarks Commission: Oral Statement

I am asking the Landmarks Commission to issue the Certificate of Appropriateness to implement the Common
Council decision to move the Confederate cenotaph to a more appropriate location in the City of Madison.

Many discussions have already been held on this and related issues.

The Common Council has voted with one vote being unanimous.

No science-based survey of local opinion has been taken on this issue, nor is one needed.

The votes of our elected representatives on our Common Council are an accurate reflection of the sentiment of
our community on this issue.

The cenotaph in Forest Hill is not in the historical tradition of cenotaphs.

Cenoptahs traditionally memorialize those interned elsewhere or whose remains have not been recovered.

When the cenotaph was installed in Forest Hill it duplicated the names on the individual wooden grave markers
already placed on the graves of the Confederate POWs and now duplicates the names on their gravestones..

That raises questions about the motivation for its installation which I discussed in my written statement.

At a previous Landmarks Commission meeting, the Normandy beaches of D-Day were cited as a reason not to
move the cenotaph.

Nazi soldiers killed in the invasion are buried in a cemetery in a nearby town. Their graves are marked with
individual gravestones with no additional monument listing all their names.

Even though the Cenotaph is now considered a Landmark not every landmark needs to be in the exact location it
was in when initially placed.

Moving the cenotaph is not erasing history.

The cenotaph will not be demolished or destroyed.

The Common Council and Madison Parks are committed to finding an appropriate historical institution to house
and preserve the cenotaph, perhaps the State Historical Society or Veterans Museum.

At this time, the cenotaph is exposed to the elements and there are no resources or designation of responsibility
to maintain it.

Moving the cenotaph to a nearby historical institution means that institution will preserve, maintain, and display it.

A cemetery is not A Discussion Forum

Forest Hill is an active cemetery where families, friends, and neighbors are burying their dead and mourning their
loss.

Encouraging discussions of controversial issues in a cemetery is not appropriate especially when appropriate
historical institutions are readily accessible nearby.

To conclude.

To quote General and President Ulysses Grant, “(The Confederate soldiers) fought so long and
valiantly, and had suffered so much for a cause, though that cause was, I believe, one of the worst for
which a people ever fought, and one for which there was the least excuse. I do not question, however,
the sincerity of the great mass of those who were opposed to us.”

These fallen Confederate soldiers deserve to be memorialized with individual gravestones and a well-maintained
burial ground at Forest Hill Cemetery.

The cenotaph which aimed to celebrate the Confederate cause should be moved to a more appropriate location.

I am available to answer questions.

Leonard H. Cizewski,

The author appreciates the editing assistance of Cheryl Robinson and Marshall Begel