Tom Ault
Jefferson City
Dear Editor:
We are too quickly approaching a road for which there is no return. Tearing down the monuments of the past because we don't agree with them, does not erase the past but only perpetuates it. Some of those monuments such as Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee., P.G.T. Beauregard, and others may represent some bad times, but those men also did good things for the country they tried to defend. Unfortunately for them, they lost, and for most of us their losing was a good thing.
Germany's Hitler (1930) attempted to do the same thing by tearing down statues, and going so far as attempting to destroy all literature that he disagreed with. This was accomplished by misleading the young, German Student Union. He went a step further with his attempts to have all children think of him as their guide instead of their parents.
What did the book burnings of Nazi Germany do for Germany? Nothing, because many of the world's libraries saved a great share of that literature. What does elimination of man's accomplishments do?
Some in our government think the government should own everything, then rent or lease those holdings to the people, hoping to persuade us to believe we will be better off enjoying mediocrity. This could describe an anarchy, an absence of government, allowing a select few to dictate our needs. This has been done in the past when "Property is theft," (Pierre-Joseph Proudhon-1840) was the thought projected that the few could govern the most. Was this the first step toward communism? How would you like a potato a week and one room per family?
Are we, the united peoples of the United States of America so oblivious to what is happening that we are going to allow racism, anarchism, atheism, and the desire to do nothing and get something, to regulate our once dynamic people. We, of all colors, were born in this country to be as one with the ambition to be free without strife and hatred.
Wake up! Now is the time to think, then speak up for what is right, not necessarily what may be popular at the moment, but rather pay attention to what is happening and not let our way of life be taken from us. Strife breeds more strife and the fulfillment of a false freedom.