Editor, Gazette-Journal:

“Mathews County needs to set an example.” —County supervisor Melissa Mason, 2022.

“Our public memorials are symbols of who we are and what we value. When we honor leaders who fought to preserve a system that enslaved human beings, we are honoring a lost cause that has burdened Virginia for too many years.” —Va. Governor Ralph Northam, 2021.

Many thanks to Sherry Hamilton, for excellent (4/28, 5/5) reporting on Mathews County commons Confederate monument debates—and to the G-J for its editorial (3/17/22) “Our vote is our voice.”

I was baffled to read last month that Mathews supervisors were seriously considering the sale of public land to private political interests, contrary, I believe, to state laws. But it didn’t surprise me. We white males tend to go kumbaya-deaf when women, especially of darker hue, remind us of injuries citizens of color suffer thanks to our systemically legalized privileges (Black codes, lynching, eugenics, redlining, carcera...