Editor, Gazette-Journal:

The July 21, 2020 meeting of the Mathews School Board should be dubbed “Mathews Unfiltered.”

First, despite being a public meeting, no one enforced the requirement that attendees wear face coverings or maintain six feet of social distancing. Not even the deputy sheriff present bothered to wear a mask.

Second, the public comment period concerning changing the name of our elementary school generated raw, unvarnished, unfiltered racism, such that I have never witnessed in my long life. If the people who spoke against the name change represent the beliefs and values of the majority of Mathews residents, we are in deep trouble.

Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson waged war against the United States of America in order to maintain and expand the enslavement of the descendants of people kidnapped from their homes in Africa for the financial gain of White landowners, planters, and bankers. There are many lessons to learn from studying these men, but we mus...