Charlottesville

[L Verge]

Many of our members may be familiar with the well-established, monthly newspaper, Civil War News. I just received my October issue, and the headline reads: "Confederate Monuments are Welcome at Beauvoir: Save the Monuments Plea."

Beauvoir, the Jefferson Davis home in Biloxi, MS, and the Jefferson Davis Presidential Library and Museum are putting out a plea to have assistance in identifying further monuments designated for removal and contacts for those responsible for the removal and disposition of each. Their goal is to bring said monuments to their property in order to prevent them from lying in storage units, junk yards, scrap heaps, or museums of "contempt" (their phrasing).

The article cites the need for them to be preserved for historical interpretation (from both sides of the issue) as well as works of art. The writer is also careful to say that they are appealing to the reasonable people of our country who have no agenda and no desire to divide our country and that they want to be part of the solution in diffusing what is currently going on and to bring back the importance of understanding our history through the eyes of those who lived it.

"If we can take the heat off, then we can focus a genuine light on our history. We want to face it in a very honest and forthright manner. Reasonable people can understand it and move on. There are far more reasonable people who care about their family and heritage, who love their country and are patriotic people than there are people who do not. ... We will not get involved with politics; that is not our job. Our job is education and commemoration. ... We will be a thermostat instead of a thermometer. We are going to turn down the heat."

These words come from Dr. Tom Payne, Executive Director & General Counsel for Beauvoir and the Davis Presidential Library and Museum. The plea then goes out for citizens, local officials, and others to save threatened monuments and memorials and send them to the Beauvoir campus for historical interpretation. Of course, funding is an issue that is not stressed in this article, but an online link to the Beauvoir Legacy Campaign is gf.me/u/cfknnu The Campaign may also be reached at 2244 Beach Blvd., Biloxi, MS 39531 - 228-388-4400.

On page 2 of the same issue is a statement from the Civil War Trust declaring zero tolerance for the violence and hatred that has been on display recently...and as a non-partisan historic preservation organization, they support protection of war monuments and memorials. "Many of these monuments are historic in their own right and potentially eligible for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places. We believe that such monuments, when properly interpreted and put into context, are invaluable educational tools that teach modern Americans about the Civil War, slavery, and the nation we are today."

Too bad that most of our current "ranters, ravers, and malleable politicians" will never read these articles. They are just not interested in the reasonable and historical aspects of this controversy.