Letter: We wouldn’t build statues to other enemies, so why Lee?

Sorry, but I’m not done with the statues issue. If German-American, Italian-American, Japanese-American or Russian-American descendants of WWII, or Cold War enemies advocated for a statue of their ancestors’ leaders on the Capitol Mall or any other public land, the request would be denied without further discussion. Is this any different from Confederate-American descendants of Civil War traitors expecting us to memorialize their traitorous ancestors with statues or monuments?

Heritage or not, I don’t want statues of Hitler, Mussolini, Tojo, Stalin or Robert E. Lee (or George III) desecrating land that belongs to loyal Americans whose ancestors died protecting that land from those tyrants and traitors who wanted to destroy our nation.

Is my analogy off base? I think not. Is there really a difference between those foreign tyrants from far-off lands and domestic traitors who lived among us before they decided to destroy our young nation? They were traitors, plain and simple, and if their descendants have so tenuous an allegiance to contemporary America and our history that they cannot let go of their “heritage,” let those descendants go back to the nations where their ancestors originated. Native-Americans and most of us descendants of loyal American immigrants won’t miss them.

This story was originally published December 15, 2017 at 5:31 PM with the headline "Letter: We wouldn’t build statues to other enemies, so why Lee?."