City Council establishes blue ribbon commission to review Lee Park statue (VA)

[1939]

3. When I hear this kind of stuff

I think of the North Vietnamese destroying or vandalizing statues and graves of the South Vietnamese war dead in 1975.

Three-quarters of my family didn't come to the US till after 1900. The one-fourth of family that were here fought on the Union side. My great-great uncle was in the Iron Brigade (24th Michigan) and fought at Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Mine Run, and the wilderness before buing the farm at Spottsylvania. My great-grandfather stood with George Thomas at chickamauga as a rear guard to save the Union army after the battle. He then contracted fever and was sent home. The fever led to an early death.

That being said, those monuments were raised in their memory by mothers, widows, daughters, and friends of soldiers who fought and gave their lives for what they thought was the right. While I think that they were wrong in their perception of what was "right", I honor their sacrifice and denounce any attempt to desecrate their memorials.