We should leave the statues, monuments and graves alone

OK, Confederate battle flags are off government properties and finding new homes in museums. I think that is a good thing.

But statues, monuments, commemorative plaques and graves being moved? How far is this going to go?

Twelve U.S. presidents owned slaves. Eight of them did so while in office. Are we going to remove all their statues and every other kind of tribute to them across the country?

Even former president and Union commanding general Ulysses S. Grant owned a slave, and he lived and worked on his father-in-law’s farm cultivated by slaves. Today, that’s where the Grant National Historic Site is located.

Is the National Park Service going to close that place down?

And that iconic symbol of the nation’s capital known as the Washington Monument — is that now somehow suddenly offensive because it is a tribute to our first president who, at the time of his death, counted 318 slaves at his Mount Vernon estate?

Take it down? Never. Appropriately, standing nearby today is the monument to civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. The symbolism is history being told in dramatic fashion — as it should be.

What about that magnificent statue of slave owner Andrew Jackson in a place called Jackson Square in New Orleans? A former mayor of the Big Easy called it a “chocolate city” but I don’t recall him wanting to repurpose that tourist destination.

And speaking of Civil War generals, a Star-Telegram guest commentary by former state senator and Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson reminded us that Robert E. Lee declared, five years before the war began, his belief that slavery was a moral and political evil.

Acting on his convictions, Lee also freed his inherited slaves long before there was a Confederacy.

Consistent with his character, an event in Lee’s life after the war is beautifully described by author Jay Winik in his bestseller, April 1865: The Month That Saved America.

The setting was an Episcopal church in Richmond after the end of the war. Worshipers had gathered for Holy Communion — in which black worshipers were required to wait until whites had completed the sacred ceremony.

Unexpectedly on this day, the congregation was stunned by the sight of a tall, well-dressed black man advancing as an equal to the communion table and kneeling there.

Seconds later a local citizen stood. “With his shoulders rounded, his middle thickened, his hair snow-white and beard gray, as usual, he attracted the attention of the rest of the church,” Winik wrote.

“The white man arose, his gait erect, head up and eyes proud, walked quietly up the aisle to the chancel rail … knelt down to partake of the communion along the same rail with the black man.

“Watching Robert E. Lee, the other communicants slowly followed in his path, going forward to the altar, and, with a mixture of reluctance and fear, hope and awkward expectation, into the future.”

Just as his field commanders had been led by him into battle, the residents of the former capital of the Confederacy now followed him into the promise of the “Great Emancipator.”

Abraham Lincoln’s famous words delivered in an attempt to begin the healing of a divided nation serve as guidance for today: “With malice toward none and charity for all … to bind up the nation’s wounds … to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves …”

How about we fulfill his desire and leave the monuments and memorials to our country’s leaders and their history alone?

Richard Greene is a former Arlington mayor and served as an appointee of President George W. Bush as regional administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency. mayorgreene@mayorgreene.com

This story was originally published July 17, 2015 at 7:11 PM with the headline "We should leave the statues, monuments and graves alone."