Removing statues won’t change American history

Dear Editor:

Our statues are being removed by people who have a hatred of our country. They believe it was unjustly founded by rich slaveholders intent on perpetuating slavery and creating a white hierarchy. They want to fundamentally transform our country. A study of American history reveals that this belief has no merit.

Frederick Douglass was born a slave but escaped to freedom. He became a prominent spokesman for free Blacks in the abolitionist movement. He wrote that the Constitution “was never, in its essence, anything but an antislavery government. Abolish slavery tomorrow, and not a single sentence or syllable of the Constitution needs be altered.”

Martin Luther King Jr. astutely said the Constitution “was a promissory note that would eventually pay off with freedom for Black America.”

I’ll take THEIR word for it. As to statue demolition and the erasing of history: Our Jewish brethren have wisely resisted the demolition of concentration camps with the reasoning “Never forget, never again.”

Gen. Eisenhower, upon seeing the camps, ordered Allied photographers to take detailed pictures of the atrocities. His reasoning, according to some accounts: “Because someday, some SOB will say this never happened.”

I pray that someday, some SOB will never have cause to say slavery never existed on the grounds that there is no physical evidence to the contrary.

Gene Gruner

Kingston