Date: Wed, 30 Jun 2010 15:43:10 EDT
From: Ed Williams
Subject: Courthouse restoration – Confederate statue
I saw on News14 today a brief report on the community forum held yesterday about the restoration of the Chatham County Courthouse. I was not able to be present at the forum, but I believe the courthouse can and should be restored to look as it did before the fire, though not necessarily to house the same offices as before.
News14 showed some woman named Valerie making a comment that had nothing to do with the restoration. She wants the statue of
the Confederate soldier to be removed from in front of the courthouse because, in her opinion, it is “not appropriate” to be there. I wonder where Valerie is from.
As an alumnus of UNC-Chapel Hill, I am familiar with the efforts, every couple of years, by some student group (Socialists of UNC, Karl Marx society, or something like that) to force UNC to take down the statue of “Silent Sam”, the Confederate soldier standing on the front lawn of the campus facing Franklin Street. Sam is still there, and I hope our local Confederate soldier will not be removed.
There is absolutely no good reason to remove it.
Ed Williams