Statues say far more about Southern values

The argument over Confederate monuments is the same everywhere. To believe these statues stand for “all” ancestors that never returned from the war is nonsense. They clearly are Confederate statues that honor people that fought to perpetuate slavery. When they were originally dedicated, it was done to perpetuate the idea of white supremacy. No amount of modern day sophistry by the United Daughters of the Confederacy can change that.

Keeping the statues is a microcosm of the mentality why people in the South voted for somebody so unfit to be president as Donald Trump. It is the failure to differentiate truth from fiction or right from wrong born of the lack of rigorous intellectual examination. Yes, I can use 21st-century thinking to judge 19th-century motives.

They were wrong then; the daughters are wrong now. Daughters of what? It screams racism. Looking at and living life today through the lens of a Civil War mentality is why most in the South are so far behind intellectually and economically as well as in health and social well-being.

David Bean

Chatsworth, Georgia