Removing past symbols takes page from communism

I have never thought I wanted to live in any country other than my own, the greatest country on Earth, the United States of America. Has this country made mistakes in the past? Certainly, but the founding fathers formed a government, then wrote a Constitution that gave us, the citizens, the ability to correct those mistakes.

The number of men who have given their lives for this country is just a little over 1 million; all of them of mixed descent. They gave their lives so I and the rest of the citizens of this country could enjoy the life and freedoms we now have. Should we now disinter those hundreds of African-Americans, if not thousands, who are buried on Robert E. Lee’s plantation, the most revered cemetery in the nation, because he was a slaveholder and fought for what he believed to be right? I believe not.

I have always taken pride in my country and my Southern heritage but we, as a country, are taking a page out of the communist playbook. Removing statues, renaming streets, parks and schools to change our history because it might represent something offensive to some is mirroring what the communists in Russia did in the 1920s and ’30s. Removing everything that is offensive from our lives is not possible nor healthy. Rewriting history will not change the mistakes of the past, but education will help us understand those actions and why they were made.

Slavery is abhorrent, although it is still practiced in many parts of the world today. We as a country must look at it in the context of the period it existed here. For the most part slaves in Africa were sold by their fellow Africans to the Spanish slave traders and brought to this country as labor. They most likely were born into slavery as many still are today. My own European ancestors sold themselves into slavery as indentured servants so they too would be brought here. They worked in the fields just as the slaves from Africa to pay off their debts. I thank God they endured the hardships they must have encountered to make it possible for me to live in this great country. Maybe Americans whose ancestors were brought here as slaves from Africa should also thank God. As descendants, they too are able to enjoy the freedoms and opportunity this country affords them.

The divisiveness this country is now experiencing through diversity and political correctness is tearing us apart, pitting one group against another. Let’s take all this energy being wasted fighting about the mistakes of the past and spend it on making this an even greater country. Maybe we could concentrate on helping the over 6 million people in Africa still held in slavery by other black Africans, many of them descendants of people who are ancestors to many Americans.

EARL DYE Eureka Springs