To The Editor:
I read the editorial by Walter Williams today, and I think he is a bit over the top by comparing the dismounting of Civil War Confederate statues to the changing of history or an Orwellian type of obfuscation designed to brainwash a nation. I compere the dismantlings to removing the Nazi swastika from a public place or dismantling a statue or Saddam Hussein, both of which are also symbols of the oppression of a people. This actions are obliterations of an “in your face” reminder of the most horrible life-style that a human can endure.
New Orleans and Memphis are predominately African-American, and I can understand why those governments would go along with such seemingly drastic requests. The simplest solution would be to simply rename the statue something acceptable to all. In just one generation the memory now associated with the statues would be gone.
The accomplishments of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson far outweigh the obscure fact that they owned slaves. Nobody really cares if they owned slaves so long as the mortmain of the democracy that they founded has improved the condition of the black people to the point of self-expression and equality in the eyes of the law. Slaves would have never been allowed to dismantle a town’s sacred monument. The democracy that Washington and Jefferson founded created a government that enabled Abraham Lincoln to overthrow the slave owners and dismantle slavery. I think that makes the fact that they owned slaves a moot point.
I believe that Mr. Williams is a bit over the top when he equates the iconoclastic removal of offensive emblems to the beginnings of a dystopian society of the changing of history. I only hope when the time comes to dismantle El Dorado’s Confederate soldier on the square that our city’s leaders will remember to simply replace “1861” with “Proud Soldier” or “The El Doradoan” (or something like that). I like that statue.
Michael Lee Cauley
El Dorado