Confederate statue a celebration of peace

Dave Ball penned a cogent defense of Confederate statuary in the Sept. 3 edition of the Observer-Reporter, based on the principle of free speech, and he requested others to add their voices in the defense of this constitutional freedom.
Consider him joined. But I will defend the continuation of the statues with an argument based on the principle of artistic interpretation.
Most of those statues were installed around 1910, before the word “racist” was considered a slur. The statue of Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville, Va., was dedicated in 1924, and paid for by a Charlottesville native and millionaire Paul G. McIntire, who made his fortune in Chicago. It was delivered as a gift at a time when the word “Yankee” was a stinging insult. The purpose of this gift was an attempt to help ameliorate the lingering hatred that many southerners still felt for the North. McIntire also freely donated the acreage for the Booker T. Washington Park, a blacks-only park in Charlottesville.
It is hard to imagine the devastation of a conflict that saw brothers and neighbors killing each other until more than half-a-million men lay dead. National trauma of that magnitude does not heal itself quickly. Statues, such as the Lee statue in Charlottesville, were offerings of the respect that a victor shows to a noble foe. They were the opposite of insults.
Today, when I look at that statue of Lee, I see a gift of goodwill, and an homage to peace and reconciliation. Other people look at that statue, and somehow see a representation of slavery and racism. Neither interpretation is final, of course – that’s not how art works.
But the statue exists. If it is removed, then one side will have successfully forced its opinion onto others. That is art criticism performed with a sledgehammer.
Opponents may argue that public funds should not go toward the maintenance of art that some people find offensive. I will remind them that my tax dollars have funded many things I find highly offensive: Artwork like “Piss Christ,” work by photographer Robert Mapplethorpe and all of NPR.
As a functioning society, we need to foster the individual courage that is required to overlook the little slings and arrows of perceived offenses that occur between neighbors and brothers in daily life.
The statue of Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville is a celebration to peace. It would be a tragic fiasco if its removal sparks a war.
Lyle Wayne Moss Jr.
West Alexander