Praise for ‘model’ behavior

Dear editor:

Speaking of “many sides, many sides,” the same deserve our praise and congratulations for the relative peacefulness and decorum of the Aug. 19 Confederate Square demonstration and counter-demonstration. Per my understanding (I invite corrections where I err), the Confederate Square Group announced in advance that its demonstration had nothing to do with white supremacy. (The last two words I would, if I could, further decapitalize.) As permitted by the national park, the group demonstrated in a relatively small fenced area, at the opposite end of Bathhouse Row from the monument itself.

Counter-demonstrators were present, as were law enforcement from city, county, state, national park and FBI, arresting a very few people for disorderly conduct the moment they crossed the legal threshold for same. Pastors across denominations conducted concurrent prayers for peace and dignity at nearby churches.

Despite a number of nasty threats on social media to pull down the inoffensive (to this damned Yankee’s mind) statue of a single Confederate soldier, counter-demonstrators lay flowers at the base of the monument. No one, to my knowledge, brought up the potentially inflammatory history of lynchings in 1906 and 1922 at the site where the monument was subsequently erected.

In my opinion, the events of last Saturday should be touted nationally as a model of appropriate public and institutional behavior for similar events elsewhere. As sad as the history of the Civil War and related antecedent and subsequent events are to me, I believe it is the unalienable right of citizens to memorialize or dememorialize historical events of significance to them as they see fit by local consensus and due process of law and without interference from outside agitation of any stripe, and in particular any that displays intentions, imagery and/or implements of violence and/or hate which (per my poor lay understanding) are not permitted speech under the First Amendment. Thomas Heckmann Hot Springs