Editor, Gazette-Journal:

Public monuments belong to the public. If the Sons of the Confederacy want to wave flags and brandish guns, they need to take the statue of the returning Confederate soldier to a private area. Ceding the land it stands on to them does not remove the statue from the public eye, where—if it is surrounded by Confederate flags—it is a symbol of belligerence toward many local residents as well as visitors.

However, if it is allowed to stand before the courthouse as a farewell to war, to flags and guns, it is for all of us. Our soldier has given up his firearm and is returning home to bait his traps, farm his land, feed his family, educate his children. He is not waving a flag, or a gun.

I ask the Mathews Board of Supervisors to retain public control of the statue and the land on which it stands, so that it can speak to all of us, not just to the sons and daughters of the Confederacy. It reminds us that we are at peace, that when fighting ends, we work to m...