Editor, Gazette-Journal:

I commend the Gazette-Journal for the editorial “Honor the builders,” published in the July 20 issue. You succinctly addressed the modern-day challenges created when only one side of history has a voice, particularly in 18th century Virginia.

Those whom we identify as our “Founding Fathers” spoke with voices that we still listen to today. We still hear the thundering cry of liberty or death eloquently spoken at a church in Richmond, but that reverberated to the colonists ready to ring the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia.

We repeatedly amplify the voices of those who sounded the alarm against tyranny that belied Colonial inalienable human rights. We remember the sound of the gun that fired the shot heard around the world. It is a history that is loud and has resonated pride throughout the centuries for those who have had the opportunity to hear it in many ways—books, documented accounts, preserved material cultures, and etched in mo...