Silent Sam is toppled - for better or for worse?

The following letters to the editor are in response to “Protesters topple Silent Sam Confederate statue at UNC” (Aug. 20).

‘Ashamed’

This morning I am ashamed of my home state after reading about the criminal actions of a mob at UNC.

Those who pulled down the Confederate statue there are not “protesters,” as the media insists on calling them. They are criminals with no respect for law and order. Is being a criminal the same as “being on the right side of history?”

To answer one sign asking “Which side are you on?” I reply that I am on the side of law and order, not on the side of mindless lawbreakers.

‘Proud’

The best time to tear down a Confederate monument was 100 years ago. The second-best time is now.

I am elated to hear that protesters pulled Silent Sam off his podium on UNC’s campus. This monument to white supremacy was erected by avowed racists and celebrated by Julian Carr’s boast of his assault on a black woman 100 yards from the statue’s base. The Confederacy should live in history books, not in a towering armed monument that keeps watch over UNC students.

It was difficult to feel pride in my school knowing that the administration and board of governors have spent the last 100 years ignoring pleas for the statue’s removal. On Monday, the students and community organizers who gathered on McCorkle Place showed that UNC is not a home for white supremacy.

I woke up this morning feeling proud to be a Tar Heel.

‘Embarrassing’

I am a double alumna of UNC Chapel Hill (BS 2004 and MA 2007) and read with interest the recent coverage of Silent Sam being toppled.

I have also donated to my alma mater over the years; I received a world-class education at Carolina and have been happy to support it in return for the many benefits I received during my time there.

However, I was disgusted to read that the university spent nearly $400,000 on security for the Silent Sam statue in 2017. This is not a responsible use of my private donation or of taxpayer funds.

While I do not support protesters taking matters into their own hands, I cannot believe that the university could not have come up with a more satisfactory and less expensive approach on this issue. Could Silent Sam not have been covered with a dropcloth or two while the university appealed to the state to change the rules and permit removal of the statue? Surely some of the fine minds at the law school would have been able to advise.

Between this expenditure and the athletics scandals of recent years, it’s become embarrassing to be a Tar Heel.

‘Teachable moment’

As UNC Chapel Hill gets started and the Silent Sam issue arises we must use this as a teachable moment. All professors who have an applicable discipline need to use this moment in their classrooms.

As Americans we have the right to disagree and we have the right to protest. We don’t have the right to vandalize when we don’t get our way.

There are legal ways to go about making change, and you aren’t provided exceptions because you think you’re in the right. Even better, teach students how to debate peacefully where they may respect one another and remain friends afterwards.

Regardless of how anyone feels, most North Carolinians believe this is a part of history that shouldn’t be ignored. Make it a teachable moment in all the valuable ways it can be.

‘What’s next?’

Concerning the recent attack on Silent Sam, I wonder what’s next.

There are four counties in North Carolina (Lee, Pender, Hoke, and Vance) named after Confederate leaders. Right next to Silent Sam stand Pettigrew Hall and Vance Hall, both named for UNC graduates, one a general and the other the war-time governor.

If you visit Memorial Hall, the main performance venue on the UNC campus, you’ll see numerous plaques dedicated to graduates, a large number of whom were Confederates. Going outside of UNC, Robert E. Lee’s portrait still hangs in the mess hall at West Point by virtue of the fact that he was the superintendent there prior to the War of the Rebellion.

My point is, where does one draw the line? Are we going to be like the old Soviet Union, where people who have fallen out of favor get their images airbrushed out of the photos and treated by the history books as though they never existed?