To the editor:

The current news of hate groups rioting and the outrageous acts of people destroying Confederate monuments in this country should be offensive to us all. I believe the monuments should be left to remind us of our past history. George Santanyana wisely said, “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” I don’t think we want to repeat the awful years of the Civil War and its aftermath.

Santanyana also said, “We must welcome the future, remembering that it will be the past; and we must respect the past, remembering that was once all that was humanly possible.” Removing monuments will not change the past.

Albert Camus said, “No matter what cause one defends, it will suffer permanent disgrace if one resorts to blind attacks on crowds of innocent people.” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. supported that thought by also stating, “The limitation of riots, moral questions aside, is that they cannot win and their participants know it. Hence, rioting is not revolutionary but reactionary because it invites defeat. It involves emotional catharsis, but it must be followed by a sense of futility.”

We don’t need more futility in our country, we need revolutionary conversation, education and respect for other opinions. Let the monuments stand to remind us we don’t want to repeat the past.

Linda Tuttle Pryce

Rockingham

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