STATUES: Mob mentality rules

The post-Charlotte hysteria of mobs ripping down Confederate statues and attacking them with kicks, spittle and harsh language is redolent of the nocturnal book burnings in Nazi Germany. The same appeal to visceral hate that eclipses reason is present.

This mob mentality is hostile to memory, itself. The perpetrators wish to erase any understanding of history beyond their own Manichean narrative equating all Southerners to evil slave owners. This is not history, it is programming.

Our bloodiest war is not easily understood. Most Southerners could never have afforded a slave. They believed that a federal government empowered to take lawfully acquired property against the will of the owner was tyrannically powerful. Most fought for states’ rights, not slavery. If we fail to recognize that smart and good people fought for the South, we steal truth from ourselves.

For example, Robert E. Lee deserves respectful remembrance for one chief reason. When many of his men were eager to wage a guerrilla war against Union occupation, Lee chose to surrender at Appomattox. Imagine, a Ku Klux Klan fighting like the Viet Cong for decades. Lee prevented this.

Historical memory is not preserved to stoke our vanity, making us seem more virtuous than our ancestors. We remember to understand a past replete with complexity to give us useful perspective as we face the uncertainties of life. We cannot accept the editing of our shared memory to match any political ideal.

RALPH K. GINORIO

Coeur d’Alene