LETTER: Tearing down monuments to the Confederacy

I believe Joe Schaerer missed the reason why we are removing memorials and statues that glorify the deeds of the Confederacy and a few of its people (Friday letter, “Erasing the past”).

Our reason for doing such isn’t to “expunge the past,” like some school districts in the South do when they forbid schools to teach history about slavery. We are removing reminders of those who chose to commit acts that perpetuated and preserved enslavement. Why should we lionize such?

By the way, at one time, much of the land at Arlington belonged to Robert E. Lee, who also had personal conflicts regarding slavery. I’ve been to Arlington a few times and believe it is one of the most solemn places in America. Most Confederate soldiers didn’t enslave people but gave their lives so the slaveholders could. Along with the countless other veterans who gave their lives during all our wars, we will never remove the soldiers from this sacred place, which Mr. Schaerer said could happen.