Background information is slowly beginning to emerge on the takedown of the Confederate Children's Plaque. According to a Texas Tribune article from last November, the decision to remove the plaque was based on one request (one only!) to the Texas State Preservation Board by State Representative Eric Johnson (D-Dallas). 

According to the article, Governor Abbott had indicated earlier that, "the plaque was put up at a vote by the Texas Legislature. It's the Texas Legislature with the responsibility to take it down." So why the abrupt about-face?

Furthermore, the article noted that Attorney General "Paxton said the Legislature could remove the plaque through concurrent resolutions, as it has done with other artifacts and monuments in the past." So where are the concurrent resolutions? 

The Texas Tribune goes on to explain that it was former House Speaker Joe Straus (see the earlier update from this petition) who attempted to avoid having the measure go to public debate in the Legislature. Why the urgency to avoid public debate?  Now it seems his protege, current House Speaker Dennis Bonnen, has followed and now implemented the same stealth approach as his predecessor.

And where is transparency, fairness and proportionality? The request of one individual is rushed through, stealthily approved, and given precedence over the interests of over 1,800 citizen petitioners? Something very fishy (to put it mildly) is going on here.