Editor, Gazette-Journal:

I feel compelled to offer my opinion regarding the belief that removing statues or other memorials which commemorate historical events and our Confederate ancestors is somehow necessary. I would subscribe to the idea that there is little noble about the Confederacy when held to the single concept of slavery. There is, however, something noble for a free people to respect and preserve their history and learn from it.

I have read somewhere that for a regular soldier of 1861, the Civil War was not exclusively about slavery—it was also about a sense of honor and duty to protect their home state from an invading army.

Not every statue has to comfort us. Statues can serve a purpose of obligating us to grapple with our nation’s history. The recent misguided fervor for removing statues and memorials seems to be a political critique of American history and our institutions, with the intent of overthrowing the order which most Americans revere.

Removal and d...