Dear editor:
Reference the Second Reconstruction of the South:
So in the name of tolerance, our memorial to dead ancestors is deemed offensive, what about tolerance toward my heritage. Those who know me know I am not racist, past member of the NAACP, I quit over the flag issue which was pushed instead of economic equality, I supported and campaigned for President Obama, and, instead of the old "I'm not racist, I have a black friend," I can say I have black family members, black, white and Cherokee, all beloved.
Any politician who stands up to force our Confederate Memorial to be taken down, any businessman who advocates the destruction of heritage, well we will answer with our dollars and our votes. That's right, we vote and spend money.
Since the tolerance seems to only go one way and the First Amendment seems to only protect one viewpoint, maybe a little history is in order. I had relatives on both sides of my family fight for their homes, they did not own slaves and some were abolitionists. Over 50,000 free black men fought for the Confederacy, they died on battlefields, died in Northern prison camps, their family farms were burned like every one else. Their families received Confederate pensions and they and their relatives attended, and do attend, reunions.
Virginia and Georgia were the first states to abolish the slave trade in the late 1700s. New York City had the most active slave traders. The Stars and Stripes flew over slavery for almost 100 years. Is Old Glory the next symbol to be taken down?
So I ask our local leaders, stay out of the politically charged "cause of the moment," it is a losing proposition. A moment of politically correct glory compared to being voted out of office.
Another inconvenient truth. After the Civil War, in an all white church in Virginia, a black gentleman entered the church, he walked to the altar and knelt to pray. The shocked white churchgoers just stared, then an elderly white gentleman got up and walked slowly to the altar, and knelt and prayed with the first gentleman, placing his arm around him. That man was Robert E. Lee. That's right, Robert E. Lee helped start the first integrated church in the United States.
Sarah Love
Hot Springs
Editorial on 06/27/2015