Dear Editor,
Political Correctness is best defined as an illogical approach to view reality and truth through the lens of delusion; it is neither political nor correct. It is a liberal social construct to promote “togetherness” and a sense of “can’t we all just get along…” without anyone’s feelings getting bruised. It’s absurd as is demonstrated by the current public feeding frenzy over 150-year old history monuments being removed, vandalized, and demonized.
This politically correct movement to remove Confederate heroes’ monuments is based on a popular misconception of the southern Confederacy, Confederate generals (Lee in particular) and ordinary Confederate soldiers, and slavery.
Recent coverage in the leftist Dallas Morning News with columnists calling Confederate statues “poisonous symbols of hate: and quotes from Dallas Mayor Rawlings promoting their removal only encourage the misconceptions and pander to the lowest common denominator of human understanding.
General Robert E. Lee’s statue in Lee Park, just north of downtown, is not a symbol of hate or a testimonial to slavery; it is a true part of Texas history and needs no sanitizing. It deserves to stay just as Ft. Hood, Texas, deserves to remain Ft. Hood: named for Confederate General John Bell Hood.
Lee, never a slave-owner, was as outspoken as Lincoln in his condemnation of slavery as his quote from 1861 attests: “The institution of slavery in any nation is a moral and political evil.”
If his monument is removed, should we not remove testaments to other historical heroes? The Washington Monument? Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello? Remove their images from the $1 bill and nickel coin?
Our most revered president, Lincoln, was indisputably a white supremacist and publicly asserted his beliefs in speeches and debates just prior to his 1860 election as president.
Shall we demolish the Lincoln Memorial?
Lee, Lincoln, and Union and Confederate leaders were products of their 19th century time and cannot/should not be judged by our 21st century understanding. History is real. It happened for understandable reasons.
To “sanitize” it and rewrite it to suit liberal sensitivities is both cowardly and wrong. In much the same way that 90% of WWII German soldiers were honorably fighting for their country and were not fighting to expand Nazism, Confederate soldiers were honorable men fighting for what they believed them was right. Honest history is the true story of the world; to deny it, is simply wrong.
Texans voted overwhelmingly for secession, a tragic mistake but a true one, and nothing in the U.S. constitution precluded the sates’ right to leave a union they had previously joined voluntarily. Force of arms eliminated that option by changing the United States are to the United States is.
Confederate historical monuments deserve their place in our history and should remain in place. Or shall we have Five Flags Over Texas…?
God bless America!
El Sellers
Fairfield, Texas
