Charlottesville

[Thomas Thorne]

I am extremely concerned about the future of our country. There is a striking resemblance to the1850's where people talked past each other. Confirmation bias where we seek only information we agree with is all too easy.

I believe that conservatives such as myself must agree in order to preserve the unity of our country to discard many Confederate monuments. Statues to purely political figures such as Jefferson Davis and John C Calhoun were built to exalt the political ideas of the Confederacy which I have never shared.

Monuments built during the 2nd era of Reconstruction as symbols of defiance to civil rights should be discarded.

I believe that many of the purely martial monuments of the Confederacy should be preserved. The monuments in national parks and cemeteries are crucial parts of the narrative of the historical events that took place there.

The thing that attracted me to the Civil War was brave men fighting fiercely for what they believed,but going home and making peace with each other as inhabitants of the same country.

As we are certainly going to wage wars in the future, the martial qualities of the Civil War era should not be lost thru neglect.
Tom

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