It was with a sad heart that I opened my paper Aug. 14 to find a large picture of a young woman standing on the Bentonville square calling for the removal of the Confederate soldier statue.
I am an American veteran who believes very strongly that the removal of all Confederate monuments is wrong. These monuments to the valor of common men in defense of an indefensible social system, slavery, must be retained for future generations as a reminder of what should not happen again. Are they painful reminders? Yes. And they must be painful to remind of us the terrible wrong that occurred in this nation. I am very disappointed our nation so swiftly tried to erase the every vestige of the Japanese internment camps of World War II. What few remnants remain should be preserved and well marked to remind future generations of what cruel actions a nation filled with fear can impose upon some of its citizens.
We need to look at what European countries have done to preserve reminders of the past. They have gone to great effort to preserve portions of the Dachua Prison Camp, where thousands of Germans, Dutch and other nationalities were imprisoned and executed because they opposed National Socialism. Likewise, Poland has preserved portions of the Auschwitz Camp. Painful reminders of past failures of a national ethos.
The Confederate flags should be consigned to museums but the statues and other memorials should remain to be painful reminders to all peoples that the past has been filled with many actions that must never be repeated.
I am opposed to these flag-waving "we shall rise again" believers in the Confederacy. I am opposed to the "white supremacists" who are demanding that white people be granted superior rights. I am opposed to racism, bigotry and hatred in whatever guise it wears this week or tomorrow.
But, sometimes life has to have painful sights to remind us that our forefathers did wrong, or acted improperly while believing in good faith they were right.
To the "white supremacists" I say, "Get over it." White supremacy has been the cause of most social ills in this nation for our entire history. My ancestors were among those white people who accepted the actions of a national government that stole the land of our nation from the Native Americans, perpetuated slavery, imprisoned our citizens of Asian ancestry and tolerated exploitation of children in the name of the Industrial Age expansion. Our history is full of painful episodes of wrongs that we must never forget, lest we be doomed to repeat the wrongs.
We must see every statue and monument as a painful reminder to never repeat the faults of the past.
Robert M. Anderson
Centerton
Commentary on 08/16/2017