Oh, good, Ed Norvell, who is about the only person other than City Council who has had a voice in deciding the new location for the Confederate monument, thinks the rest of us should be silent. Who elected him to anything?

What Mr. Norvell does not understand is that people don’t just dislike the Old Lutheran Cemetery location, they abhor it, down to the core of their bones. Despite his glowing description of the cemetery, it is obscure, seldom visited and sorely in need of repair. Both a state statute and National Register guidelines call for “Fame” to be moved to a place of prominence similar to its original location.

Personally, I don’t think there is a location as prominent as being out in the middle of the street, but I think there is a middle ground — something less prominent than the Innes Street median, but less obscure than the one and only location he is willing to consider.

The last public meeting concerning the statue was held a good time before the council decided to relocate it, at a time when the city’s position was that it could not be moved. Once council had found a way around the state statute, there were no public hearings. The decision was made behind closed doors, prior to any Salisbury City Council discussion.  The council’s official deciding meeting was never even publicly noticed.

It’s not just about the new location of Fame; it’s also about democracy and transparency. It’s about the rest of us having the voice that Ed Norvell has. This matter will never rest while we are denied that.

We have three monuments in Salisbury to the Civil War Union dead.  It is not asking too much that there be one memorializing the Confederate veterans who died, sons of Rowan County.

— Ann Brownlee

Salisbury