Date: Sat, 13 Apr 2019 14:47:10 -0400
From: virginia penley
Subject: RE: Confederate monument, etc
I greatly appreciate the personal emails I received and the dialogue that has occurred on the chatlist over the past week regarding the Confederate monument.
A well written series was written by Pittsboro resident Will Sexton and published by the Chatham County Line <https://chathamcountyline.org/> last fall in October, November and December.
The past issues are available to peruse online.
The April issue has a story about the monument and the full version of the resolution from the local Democratic Party speaking to the matter, published online.
I was hoping to see a resolution or a statement from the local GOP online regarding the Confederate monument, but to this point I have not seen an official position taken by their party.
I have, however, read statements online from their officers, but there is no indication that they represent an official position.
It strikes me that they hope to get chathamites to forget they took in nearly $116,000 from indicted donors last year, including their disgraced former chairman, in an effort to capitalize on a potential culture war over the monument.
Of course this is rich since they are the party of Lincoln, who preserved the Union and defeated the Confederacy.
Regardless of the outcome chathamites have expressed different opinions that range from leaving it alone, contextualizing it, moving it to a Confederate cemetery or giving it back to the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
I hope this means that we can disagree without becoming disagreeable, because I personally have friends and acquaintances whom I respect on all sides of this issue.
This morning I was distributing the April issue of the Chatham County Line <https://chathamcountyline.org/> to the library and found a copy of The Historical News that covers Chatham, Harnett, Lee and Moore counties.
The issue had a wonderful story by Walter D. Siler from 1932 about Tory chieftain David Fanning and his many exploits which included raids on our court house in Pittsboro.
This got me thinking.
Why do we not have any statues honoring the Chatham rebels who opposed the British and literally fought in front of the old courthouse in 1781?
With another bloody battle at Lindleys Mill led by revolutionary rebels General Butler and Major Mebane.
These men and women were on the cutting edge of birthing a new nation with some very famous exploits occurring in and around Chatham County.
Trying to stay dry,
Virginia J. Penley