For the past several weeks, Union County has grappled with an issue communities across the country are also reckoning with: whether a monument to Confederate soldiers situated on the Courthouse grounds should remain where it stands.
Last month, the Union County Quorum Court decided to leave the issue to the voters of the county. On November 3, local residents who vote in the general election will be able to cast a ballot in favor of or against keeping the monument on the county Courthouse lawn.
A local resident appeared before the Quorum Court in June to ask the body to consider relocating the monument. A Monument Committee was formed, and Union County Judge Mike Loftin asked local residents to share their thoughts with him through letters and petitions.
Nearly 1,900 residents wrote in or signed petitions that were distributed to Justices of the Peace for consideration prior to their making the decision to leave the issue to voters. District 1 JP Mike Dumas said he read all of the letters received, and found that may residents wrote from their hearts.
“The writers spent a lot of time thinking about what they were putting on paper,” he said in an email to the News-Times.
In an effort to provide voters with more knowledge before they make their final decision about the monument in November, Dumas compiled a selection of about 260 letters from residents on both sides of the issue in a booklet for local residents to read. It’s available in Loftin’s office at the Courthouse.
“Now that voters will be making the decision on the monument, I wanted all voters to hear both sides of the issue. There is passion in the letters, and history, and to be an intelligent voter, you need to understand the other side,” Dumas said.
Dumas noted that in his view, monuments across the Courthouse lawn — where memorials to local veterans of the Vietnam and Korean wars, as well as World War I and II are displayed along with the Confederate monument — honor the soldiers of those past wars.
“We believe they should be honored for giving their lives so we can be here today enjoying family, friends and life,” Dumas said. “Those soldiers should be remembered and honored as well.”
While his opinion on the Confederate monument’s location wasn’t changed from reading the letters, Dumas said he gained a better understanding of how other residents in the community view the history that led to its being built.
“You can go by the Judge’s and check (a booklet) out for a few days, and I believe you will agree with me that you will find heart and soul on the paper,” Dumas said.
