A spirit of fraternity

I’d like to thank the various writers who have written in quoting Teddy Roosevelt and the importance of criticizing the president when he deserves it and not treating him as untouchable. Although I do wonder where these people were for the past eight years, and why their voices were so mysteriously silent during that time.

So I’d like to remind them of something another Republican said. Shortly after the conclusion of the Spanish-American War, President McKinley urged reconciliation during the care of the graves of Confederate soldiers. “Every soldier’s grave made during our unfortunate Civil War is a tribute to American valor. … And the time has now come … when in the spirit of fraternity we should share with you in the care of the graves of the Confederate soldiers,” he said, continuing, “the cordial feeling now happily existing between the North and South prompts this gracious act.”

Also, President Franklin D. Roosevelt attended the unveiling of the Robert E. Lee Memorial Statue in Dallas. He said, “All over the United States we recognize him as a great leader of men, as a great general. But, also, all over the United States I believe that we recognize him as something much more important than that. We recognize Robert E. Lee as one of our greatest American Christians and one of our greatest American gentlemen.”

Say, you do know that Confederate soldiers have been designated as American veterans, right? So whenever a Confederate statue is torn down, a statue of an American veteran is torn down. LONNIE HILL Fayetteville