Don’t try to whitewash our Civil War history

As the push to remove Civil War memorials

grows, I want to know why. Why would this country want to forget a war between the states that pitted family against family, a war in which African Americans fought for their freedom? Why would we want to forget the soldiers from the Union Army and Confederate Army?

The Civil War was a war between ideas, bigotry and slavery. A war where a nation defined its direction. President Lincoln noted the importance of the conflict to ensure an undivided nation “of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

Why would we want to remove memorials that help us remember Americans who fought (and died) on both sides or whitewash our past so we can forget those who were drafted? For instance, the monument to Robert E. Lee in New Orleans was removed, but how many knew what he did before the Civil War? Lee was a top graduate of the West Point Military Academy, an Army military engineer for several years. He was also a veteran of the MexicanAmerican War, and he served as superintendent of West Point. After the Civil War, Lee was an advocate for the reconciliation between the Union and Confederacy.

Above all, why would we want to forget the Confederate soldiers who were drafted to fight a war they had no say over?

These monuments do not speak to this generation’s problems with racism, bigotry or violence towards each other. The issues we have today are unresolved issues that have evolved through the years as our nation grew and changed faster than the people within its borders. Our society has become more violent on its own, not because of the monuments from a war that ended in 1865. Keep the monuments in place and redirect the racist-fueled violence of our society towards healthier alternatives. Robet Shear Nekoosa, Wis.