Letter: Let’s not refight the Civil War

Apparently, somebody is complaining that Richland should not have a street named after a confederate Civil War general. I beg to disagree.

Like so many other living descendants of slaves and union or confederate families, I am a living stake holder in an attitude toward the Civil War and its symbols. As such, I sincerely believe that this war was fought by men of good will on both sides. Over a hundred years later, we shouldn’t be preoccupied in renaming streets or removing statues of confederate soldiers or leaders. We don’t need to be wasting our time refighting the Civil War. We have enough distractions and hard feelings towards some of our fellow citizens as it is. Many countries beside the United States have statues of noble and not-so-noble losers.

It is my sincere hope that the majority of the living descendants of slaves and union or confederate families feel the same way, and that they don’t believe in further stirring the pot of hate and discontentment.

This story was originally published September 22, 2017 at 2:47 PM with the headline "Letter: Let’s not refight the Civil War."