Let’s be honest about why that Confederate marker is at Tarrant County Courthouse

Rise beyond sins of the past

Mac Engel dug to the root of injustice: slavery in America. Now let’s pull out those poisonous roots. We who value liberty and justice for all can purge our land of this sin. The majority of Americans — white, black, brown, other — can achieve equality for all.

- Karen A. Hodges, Southlake

No military against citizens

Some countries that use military force against their own people are China, Russia and North Korea. Is this what we want to happen to the United States? We had all better take heed.

- Bonnie Hromcik, Benbrook

A new class of leaders

The comments of many sport reporters, coaches and athletes clarify that they are among our new public intellectuals. They use their freedom to support the rights and responsibilities of everyone, an idea that seems foreign in many political, religious and social circles. Thanks, Mark Cuban, LaDainian Tomlinson, Mac Engel, Clarence Hill Jr., Gary Patterson and Dak Prescott.

- DJ Simpson, Fort Worth

Marker not about racism

The Confederate marker outside the Fort Worth courthouse should remain. (June 5, 1A, “Confederate marker’s critics renew their efforts”) The marker honors those who died in a war that decided the issue of slavery, but not racism. Hopefully, future generations will ask their parents about the monument, giving parents the chance to explain the marker.

To strike against racism, we should instead destroy the derelict Main Street meeting hall used by the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s.

- Robert F Lommel, Mansfield

Be honest about our history

There were Texans who fought for the Union and for the Confederacy. Where is the monument for Texans who fought for the Union? It doesn’t exist.

Monuments to the Confederacy were placed in Southern cities when the civil rights movement was beginning and people wanted to push back. It was an intimidation tactic that many misguided city leaders refuse to acknowledge.

If the Fort Worth monument really is about honoring veterans, let’s take down the archaic monument that honors only Confederate soldiers and replace it with one honoring all Texans who gave their lives in the American Civil War.

- Peggy Saint-Michel, Lantana

Don’t spread this around

I enjoyed Dick Collier’s May 31 cartoon depicting the political conventions as super spreaders. (4B) It looks just like a manure spreader, and both sides of politics are mostly that. If we are talking virus spread, what about baseball games, concerts and protest marches?

- Gail G. Stephens, Graham

Founders are above reproach

Mac Engel has again allowed his progressive liberal political stance to show its face, but this time he has gone well beyond his pay grade. How dare he chastise our Founding Fathers for their creation of the foundation that has enabled the U.S. to become the greatest democratic republic in history? (June 1, 1B, “NFL’s Goodell is no different than America’s Founding Fathers”)

- Gary Lambert, Mansfield