Opinion: What the fight over Confederate monuments reveals about President Trump’s troubling mind set

To the editor: Lisa Richardson’s op-ed article is a beautifully written, brilliantly articulated response to those who equate Confederate monuments with those of national patriots. More power to Richardson and those who would see history as the whole picture it was, and not some snapshot fantasy that allows others to cling to lost and outdated prejudices. (“I’m a black daughter of the Confederacy, and this is how we should deal with all those General Lees,” Opinion, Aug. 27)

This piece also brings up a troubling question regarding President Trump. Is it worse to be a racist or an anti-semite, or someone who has no real sense of history, no moral compass, and who merely sees all people through the prism of whether or not they are “for” or “against” him?

Given that the man in the White House can equate white supremacists with anti-hate protesters, I feel strongly that it is the latter. And woe be unto all those who support him, for they too must throw away their moral compasses if they are to stay on his “good side.”

Andy Traines, Los Angeles

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To the editor: I wonder why we don’t honor Confederate veterans by means other than monuments to generals and generic soldiers. In many areas we honor individuals from our past with memorial bricks.

In Altadena, Mountain View Cemetery contains the graves of nearly 700 Union veterans and fewer than 20 Confederate fighters. Yet on Memorial Day both sides are honored equally with historical tours of grave sites (one for Union soldiers, one for Confederates) following an organized joint observance.

In Germany since 1992, there has been an ongoing project to place concrete cubes with brass plates in the walkways at the final residences of the victims of Nazis. They’re called stolpersteine, stones for us to “stumble upon” as we go about our daily lives. It is a subtle incentive to bear witness to history.

Could not something similar be done?

Gordon Seyffert, Altadena

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To the editor: In Richardson’s mind, Robert E. Lee is just a traitor, and that’s that.

The picture is much more complex. I guess Lee was supposed to lead a Union army into his beloved Virginia, savage it, and kill his fellow countrymen! Lee didn’t start the war. War came to him; he had to make an agonizing decision. His difficult choice is morally defensible.

The politically correct mentality that can coldly dismiss Lee as a traitor will also reduce Confederate statues to one-dimensional icons of evil and demand their removal. This thinking is in the business of “correcting” history, you see, and those people are always right. Debate is not welcome.

We see in those statues a reflection of ourselves. Some people will see the evils of a slave state. Others see the “glory” days of white power. A lot of us just see artistic renderings of interesting, sometimes great individuals and moments of history. It’s not one-dimensional.

Dave E. Matson, Pasadena

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To the editor: Leave the statues up. Give the pigeons more food. Let nature take its course.

Bob Wicks, Brea

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