When I see “Fame”, I see an angel holding up a fallen soldier. I have never thought of it as Confederate or of a particular race. I only see an angel holding a soldier, caring for all of our soldiers.

No, the base doesn’t say for soldiers of World War I, II, Korea or Vietnam because those wars had not happened when our statue was erected. I have never considered it anything but a loving Angel and, until very recently, never heard of anyone else seeing it in a negative light. The negativity seemed to start when with the Charleston, South Carolina, shooting and the Charlottesville, Virginia, tragedy. These thugs did evil things to try to instigate racial strife. They are in jail, laughing because of all the strife they have created.

Do not allow these thugs to dictate to things — our angel did nothing; the criminals did. Hunt down and arrest the murderous thugs and the ones that defame our statue and take legal action against them, not our angel.

If we continue to give into these persons, it will not stop; they will just continue to create evil to get what they want.

I believe the excuse of it being a safety hazard is just that — an excuse. Some said that, by having the statue stand, these horrible people would descend on our town. These evil persons would come to our town to cause trouble regardless of whether the statue downtown or not.

Also, people say they want to move it to a “better” location, but it appears they want to hide it. Based on the legality of moving it, I recall, it had to be moved to a place of equal prominence, moving it to a museum or an old cemetery is not of equal prominence.

Leave the statue where she is — watching over our city proudly.

— Anita Mowery

Woodleaf