Editor:
As I watched the murderous news unfolding out of Charleston and the view of the victim, I realized that it would probably be a race issue far larger than one lone white man-child.
Unfortunately, I have been proved correct.
Not one of the reasons that I have seen that calls for the removal of the Confederate statues around the south and around the nation are valid. I am going to put it as simply as I know how. Anyone who calls for the removal of these statue, I am not referring to the Confederate battle flag, should be ashamed.
I have been taught that history — both the “good” and the “bad” should be taught and understood in the light in which it occurred. There is a rush to judge our past and erase those portions that are not up to the “standards” of the politically correct.
If the politically correct from the left “win” the battle to change the history, it will be one more nail in the Constitution.
As America moved forward from a new nation toward the end of slavery in 1865, 12 of our previous presidents at the time owned slaves. If the argument will stand that those leaders of the Confederacy have their statues removed, then we must also remove the statues and monuments from those who owned slaves.
The individuals who owned slaves are: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, James K Polk, Zachary Taylor, Andrew Johnson (vice president under Lincoln), and of course, Union hero, U. S. Grant.
I will be saddened to see the Washington Monument, the Jefferson Monument, Grant's Tomb all removed from their respective places. However, with the stinking thinking of those who want the history of the Confederacy removed from the history books, this must be the only option.
Most of us are aware of the idea of unintended consequences. I see in this situation in Charleston and beyond the real potential for just such an unintended consequence.
America has a litany of what we could call “ugly” history.
In a country as varied and open as America, that is only natural. However, should those in the state house, the White House and Congress begin to punish all of those descendants who had men who fought and died in the Civil War on the side of the Confederacy, there will be a great and ugly backlash that only time will tell.
As for me, I will continue to visit my Confederate ancestors in the several cemeteries where I know they are laid to rest. I will continue to not fly the Confederate battle flag, but I will continue to support anyone who feels the need to do so for the right reasons.
Like me, most of those who celebrate our Confederate roots harbor “malice toward none” and seek to respect those who fought for a cause greater than themselves — the importance of state’s rights. It seems as though state’s rights may, once again, be a point of great contention. I pray this is not so.
Tom Grovenstein
Statesboro