Last Saturday, the Salisbury Post ran a cartoon depicting a boy and his father looking at a statue that had been removed, with the father saying to his son, “A symbol of white supremacy once stood here.” Despite the cheap-shot tone of the caption, what struck me was the fact that the father could say basically the same thing to his son if the statue were still  there. Whether I agree with the father or not is not the issue. The issue is the father made a comment, and that comment could pique the interest of the boy to learn more about the Civil War. However, this is far less likely to happen, for there is no statue for the boy to see.

This latest fad of removing Confederate statues across the United States is nothing but a shallow, symbolic exercise that will do little to improve race relations. In fact, it could make things worse by stirring up suppressed anger and resentment.

If you have a problem that requires a therapist, that therapist will tell you to own up to it and not sweep it under the rug. Yet whenever I read or see a story about another Confederate statue being removed, I feel just the opposite is happening. I may take lots of medicine to stop the pain of a broken arm, and the pain may be gone, but the broken arm remains.

The removal of Confederate statues is like taking medicine for some. It probably makes them feel better, but …

— Allan Gilmour

Salisbury