Confederate marker shouldn't be at annex
Editor:
It is with great pride that I pass each day and view our countys beautiful new courthouse annex on Ronald Reagan Drive. It is a true symbol of our countys progression and success. Visiting friends and family members agree.
A well-financed and politically connected movement is lobbying the county commissioners for the placement of a Confederate monument on the grounds of the building that will become the marketing and public relations symbol of our progressive county.
It matters not how pretty and politically correct the description of the monument; it is still a Confederate monument.
I am an American of African slave descent. I have lived and been an entrepreneur in Columbia County for 15 years. My family and I have participated in the social evolution of our country through the civil rights movement of our native, segregated Mississippi.
We have worshiped, paid taxes, and served in the U.S. Army in the patriotic defense of our country. I am an American.
The placement of an honor monument to the Confederacy on the grounds of the symbol of government in the community in which I live is appalling. The building, grass and trees alone are very beautiful. The Confederacy was a society, religion and government whose foundation was based upon the enslavement of human beings - my ancestors.
I can understand the Confederate ancestry in seeking remembrance. As a citizen of the United States of America, one should understand that the losers of a revolution against a sovereign government are traitors and have committed treason. Remembrance of the Confederacy belongs in a museum of history.
I ask the Columbia County commissioners not to turn a universal symbol of pride into a symbol of racial division.
For evidence of what such racial divisions will yield in a community, look at our sister county. With all of this symbolism before us, basically the commissioners are asking me to trust them. Think about it.
Keith C. Moses
Evans
(Editors note: Commissioners last week approved a resolution locating the monument in the planned Columbia County Memorial Gardens behind the new Justice Center site.)