Editorial good, but somewhere north of correct

Re: “Take down Pioneer Monument,” July 5 editorial

Thank you for the editorial. I agree that what a statue or monument honors and the history its creation should be taken into account when determining whether it should remain, be removed or reinterpreted. This should be decided with transparency and in the light of public debate to ensure all voices are heard and not by angry mobs in the middle of the night.

So, I am glad to see that Gov. Jared Polis and Denver Mayor Michael Hancock have set up independent committees to oversee this process.

We must educate ourselves and understand our history as a state and as a nation, warts and all, if we are to live up to the ideals of “liberty and justice for all.”

I was born and raised in Rapid City on the eastern edge of the Black Hills just 25 miles from Mt. Rushmore. Imagine my consternation to find out from the Post Editorial Board that the massive sculptures of Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln had been moved from my beloved boyhood home of South Dakota to North Dakota! Had it been sold and quietly spirited north in the dead of night? Was I really born and raised in North Dakota, not South Dakota, as I had been told my entire life?

I quickly contacted my parents back home, who gently reassured me that the “Shrine of Democracy” remains in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

Curtis Dominicak,

Editor’s note: A correction was run in print for this error and was changed before the editorial went online.