The News Courier encourages letters to the editor. Submissions should be no more than 400 words and include name, address and telephone number for verification. Submissions that do not meet requirements are subject to editing. Writers are limited to one published letter every 30 days. Send letters to P.O. Box 670, Athens AL 35613 or email to adam@athensnews-courier.com.

Why move history?

Dear Editor:

Where is my history? Why is my history being removed?

Why are statues of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, both of whom fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War, both of whom did not own slaves, but yet — because they were judged by people who know neither history or the history of those men — their memory should be erased from our collective memory.

So I ask you, where does it end? What about George Washington or Thomas Jefferson? Both fathers of our country, both of whom did own slaves.

Are you going to go to Mount Vernon and demand the removal of Washington’s mansion? Are you going to Monticello and burn down President Jefferson’s mansion? Some of you might be related to Jefferson, so that’s not gonna fly.

The events that took place this past weekend was doomed to catastrophe before the first victim or perpetrator arrived on the scene. When you choose to remove or protest a statue or landmark of your country’s history, you invite people both for and against. And when they meet in the small cramped space of time and place, what takes place will be unable to hold neither those for or against.

When you choose to erase the history of a people or a place, you will cause (either inadvertently or purposefully) the next riot of blood and shame.

Sincerely,

Jeffrey Calvert

Athens

We should work together

Dear Editor:

I attended a candlelight vigil Sunday mourning the death in Charlottesville, Virginia. The crowd in Huntsville represented what America strives to be — white, black, Asian, young, old, male, female, able-bodied, people in wheelchairs, people of many faiths, gathered together in harmony to oppose the darkness that threatens our land.

We must focus on our similarities, not our differences. Our anatomies are more alike than different. Our hopes are more alike than different. The core messages of our religions are more alike than different.

Working together, we built a great nation. Working together, we have sent people to the moon and unmanned probes to the rest of the solar system. Working together, we have conquered several diseases and developed treatments for many more. Working together, we have mapped the human genome, making it possible to develop treatments for still more diseases.

Working together, we can make the world a better place for all.

Sincerely,

David Williams

Elkmont