Letters to the Editor, June 5, 2020 | Letters to the Editor | richmond.com – Richmond.com

Lifetime city resident

seeks statues removal

I read Jeff Schapiros column, Desecration as an argument for preservation, and am angered by how tone-deaf some people can be.

Ive lived in Richmond my whole life, as have my parents. My father grew up beside the statue of Robert E. Lee in the house his father built on Monument Avenue. It angers me as a Richmond native who has benefited from the past evils imposed on our black citizens that these statues still are standing. They must come down even though they never have looked more beautiful and relevant than they do now covered in graffiti.

As for context, how long has it been since the commission on context met? We have seen no action. Was their report all platitudes? But we dont need context. We know the context. The enslaved were again enslaved by different means in the Reconstruction of the South.

My black friends do not drive down Monument Avenue because it is insulting that we celebrate the men who would enslave them.

As the daughter of a World War II veteran, I was raised to celebrate the United States of America and our Constitution. These statues celebrate those who wanted to divide these United States.

We will not forget Civil War history just because statues are removed. We can go to museums to remember the painful history of Reconstruction. As for recent statues mentioned in Schapiros column, does our citizenry know where they are standing? They need to be moved to a place of prominence on Monument Avenue so all citizens can appreciate the beauty of our grand avenue.

We need to celebrate the suffragist and civil rights leaders who changed this city for the better, not the ones who tried to drive us apart. Send these statues to the American Civil War Museum if they even want them.

Find a protected space

to display monuments

Many of us had hoped that the Confederate monument issue could be resolved with a win-win solution of adding historical context to existing statues while erecting new pieces celebrating African American heritage and progress.

That might have turned a very negative problem into a unique and illuminating avenue of historical education for all Richmonders and visitors.

Instead, it appears now the monuments will be stripped, forever altering the aesthetic of one of the nations most beautiful boulevards.

So be it. I do hope, however, that the statues will find a new and secure resting place, where they still can be viewed and experienced by those who so choose. If at all possible, they should be collected as a group in an enclosed environment that will better protect them from vandalism when emotions once again run high, as they almost certainly will.

Statues empty pedestals will be powerful symbols

People are marching in Richmond today who have never held a placard in their lives. And it seems that finally the statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee that looms over Monument Avenue will be removed from its pedestal and put in storage.

I have dreams about who could replace him on Monument Avenue Richmonders worthy of that spot. Anyone whos drunk more than two beers with me over the past half-decade has been subjected to my rant about the discredit done to our city with every year that passes before a statue of singer-songwriter DAngelo is erected.

Of course, more important than symbolic change are the changes in policy that protesters are advocating. The reform and eventual abolition of our carceral system and our police are lodestars that should guide our course.

But symbols are not nothing. Symbols are our ideas and our values made concrete. And in the heat of early June in the city of Richmond, they cast long shadows.

I met a sculptor once who constructed monuments to failure. He fashioned bent and broken obelisks, towers left half-complete. He wanted to memorialize his failures and ours to look at them clearly and to show that they are as integral to who we are as our successes.

The statues of Confederates on Monument Avenue have long been symbols of the victory and persistence of their cause in our city and our nation.

Someday we will raise new symbols in their place. But for a few days or more, empty pedestals can be monuments to their failure. The world they wanted to build still lingers in our streets and our halls of justice. But for now, let those empty pedestals hold space, let them hold the promise of a better city being born.

Money for statue removal better spent elsewhere

It pains me to see Gov. Ralph Northam and Mayor Levar Stoney decree that the Confederate monuments must be taken down. History cant be swept under a rug. Putting contextual plaques with each monument would educate and remind us all of our sordid past and to not forget it.

Just as the Holocaust should never be forgotten, so, too, the time when our country fought over enslavement of African Americans should never be forgotten. With our budget deficit ballooning because of COVID-19, people out of work and now so many businesses destroyed, is this really the best way we can spend our much-needed tax money? The removal, relocating and replacing of these monuments will cost millions of dollars. This money could be so much better used in rebuilding the mainly minority-owned damaged stores, supporting our city schools that are failing and help those who are unemployed.

Will moving statue bring out armed protesters?

I support the removal of the statues of the Confederates on Monument Avenue. Recently, I was unsure how I felt or what would be the best way to go. However, the events of this past week and the words and actions of President Donald Trump make it clear to me that these statues have no place in our society and must go.

Just talking about this might bring armed white protesters out in mass. What will the police do?

Removing statue a step toward racial justice

I was present at the University of Virginias Cabell Hall on a cold evening in 1963 when the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. challenged us students to lead the Old Dominion toward a new future of racial justice. Since that time, I have served as an administrator at two of the commonwealths universities, witnessed several hard-won civil rights advances and gratefully contributed to a few steps forward. But I have never been more proud of Virginia than when I heard Gov. Ralph Northam announce that he would take the statue of Robert E. Lee down from its perch on Monument Avenue.

Some will denounce Northams decision as pure symbolism offering few tangible benefits. Those making that argument, however, will have to disown the logic adopted by Virginias white citizens who built the statue in 1890.

Devotees of the Lost Cause myth understood the value of symbolism, and that is exactly the reason they erected the statue. They sought to affirm white supremacy and intimidate African Americans. For far too long, the monument did its job.

Northam understands the power of symbolism, and that is the reason that the statue must go. It will signal the determination of the majority of Virginians to move toward racial justice, and that provides overwhelming justification for the removal. Place the statue in the American Civil War Museum at Historic Tredegar as the centerpiece of an exhibit on the Lost Cause, one of the many false steps on Virginias 400-year path toward a more perfect commonwealth.

Removing monuments

will affect tourism

I agree with correspondent Berk Jones Letter to the Editor, Preserve and protect Civil War monuments. Richmond no longer deserves to house the Confederate monuments on Monument Avenue. After they leave, watch the tourist dollars and jobs leave with them.

Replace monuments with statues to common soldier

Once again the Confederate statues along Monument Avenue have become the focal point of protests. A commission was appointed to review how best to proceed on the question of the role these monuments should play in the future of Richmond.

I wholeheartedly agree with the commissions recommendation to remove the Jefferson Davis monument and to add context to the Lee, Jackson and Stuart monuments. However, if at the end of the day, these monuments must also be removed, they should be replaced with monuments honoring the bravery and sacrifice of both Confederate and Union soldiers who fought and died in the Civil War.

Surely, we can all agree that the sacrifices of the common soldier are worth remembering. We cannot escape the fact that Richmond was the capital of the Confederacy. That fact, along with many others, helps make this city unique. It appears Richmond is at a crossroads on these issues. The city can choose to embrace its history (both good and bad) and tell its story in a responsible and holistic manner, or the city can choose to erase and run away from that history. I hope we choose the former.

Replacement plan needed before statue is removed

Per Gov. Ralph Northam, it appears that Richmonds Monument Avenue will be no more. I think this is a major mistake without a plan to replace these monuments with others of notable Virginians, such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, James Madison, John Marshall, etc.

Without a plan by the state of Virginia and the city of Richmond to replace these monuments, both local property values and tourism will take a major hit. I, for one, am very happy I do not live in the city of Richmond now.

Graffiti transforms, completes Lee monument

Every once in a while, a person comes across a photo that makes the world stand still. I had such an experience this week when I saw the picture of the Robert E. Lee Monument covered in graffiti. Im a longtime Richmonder who at one time lived on Monument Avenue, right in the shadow of Lee. I have mixed feelings about the plans to remove the statue. But the way that monument looks now its almost like it was missing something all along and we just didnt realize it. Now its as though its finally complete, a work of art, a testament to the American experience. A doorway to a brighter tomorrow? Whatever we do with the monuments, maybe we dont wash that paint off.

Monuments draw tourists who help keep city afloat

City leaders should provide some forward-thinking in the statue removal rush. Think back to 1949. After Frank Sprague used Richmond to develop the streetcar system in 1888, Richmond leaders burned all the streetcars in a massive pile in 1949.

Just think of the massive tourist dollars that would have been flowing into the city since it was the site of the first commercial streetcar system in the country had that decision been different. Had it not been for Richmond, the Boston system might not have existed. Those tourist dollars are gone for good.

Now, examine the monuments in the capital of the Confederacy with a ride down beautiful Monument Avenue. We cannot change history, only put it in proper context. What will city leaders tell restaurateurs and hoteliers when these tourist dollars disappear as well? What else does Richmond have? Are city officials satisfied to just raise taxes to cover even basic services?

Id prefer to have the tourist dollars filling that tax gap.

Grayson (Ranny) Robertson.

Transform Monument Ave. into more inclusive space

Something must be done with Monument Avenue.

Since the 1890s, its Confederate monuments have presented a whitewashed version of history that has contributed to white supremacy in Richmond and across the South. In 2020, many still feel the effects of this exclusion, and it is time we address these issues.

While I firmly believe that these monuments present an ideologically tinged version of the past, I cannot support their removal. By moving these statues, I believe we would miss a golden opportunity to foster continued dialogue and historic consciousness in our city.

I propose Richmond reframe Monument Avenue in order to create a different space that emphasizes diversity and tells the painful history of oppression in this city. Through the addition of more diverse public art and context, we could transform the avenue into an inclusive space that addresses racial justice concerns.

This first step would be to desacralize the Confederate monuments by adding desperately needed context about white supremacy, the Jim Crow era and the Lost Cause. Second, we need more monuments celebrating the achievements of black Virginians and other racial minorities. Finally, the city should designate a space along the avenue for more ephemeral public art such as temporary monuments or installations. Providing an additional way to nonviolently speak out, this would allow for democratic expression about contemporary or historic issues and injustices.

Repurposed, Confederate monuments would serve as vivid examples of past attitudes and oppression that we now decry. They would help remind us of our complicated and painful past something that we must never forget.

Indeed, what better way to repudiate the negative legacies of our Confederate and white supremacist past than by repurposing its most impressive monuments to bear perpetual witness to its wrongs?

Move statues to places

that give them context

Thank you to Evan Reid for his Letter to the Editor, Richmond must remove Confederate monuments. He said it all about the removal of the Confederate statues: We will. We shall. We must. Amen to that.

To those who claim that the removal of the statues is erasing history, think of it this way: The statues will be relocated not removed to a more appropriate venue of remembrance, like a museum or cemetery where Confederate soldiers are buried; or, in the case of the Robert E. Lee statue, to the generals birthplace. I feel these venues are the best context for these symbols, not on public land. Furthermore, I feel these historical, well-trafficked locations will do a much better job keeping the sentiment that you cherish alive.

History is not getting erased, just relocated.

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Letters to the Editor, June 5, 2020 | Letters to the Editor | richmond.com - Richmond.com