Editor, Gazette-Journal:

It is disappointing to find that political correctness and disparate group thinking so prevalent in much of our country has reached Mathews County.

When our family came to Mathews 40 years ago, we discovered a place where many families had lived for generations and created strong and caring relationships with one another, established schools and churches that were a source of pride and lived a lifestyle often described in this newspaper as “happy homes and fertile farms on smiling waters.”

The Confederate monument which includes the ancestors of many of the old Mathews families stood long before we came here. The Constitution guarantees freedom of speech to all. Actions, not words or symbols, are what is damaging. Why should any person or group have symbols or words removed with which they disagree? James Madison wrote in the Federalist Papers of his concern about the tyranny of the minority. Why can’t we all live together and respect diffe...