The argument I make against the removal of monuments to Confederate notables is not in support of the Confederacy, white supremacy or slavery, it has a more basic, fundamental root.
My argument is that of the right to free speech and the freedom of thought that precedes speech. Assume that a friend of mine agrees with me that slavery was an abomination and yet when he looks at a statue o Robert E. Lee, all he sees is a celebration of slavery and oppression but I see a man who loved the United States, a graduate of West Point who turned down a command in the Army of the North but and took up the banner of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in loyalty to his family and home state.
What this comes down to is an official sanction of a particular thought and view of history by government. It is saying that my friend’s perspective is the only legitimate perspective and should be promoted by coercive force of government.
This is dangerous for many reasons – but the primary reason is related to what Orwell wrote in “1984”: “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.” Destruction of the past renders a populace ignorant and dependent on the dictates of authority – which in this case is government.
As an example, we all know how the American progressive left venerates Woodrow Wilson but how many know that Wilson was a virulent racist who re-segregated the American military? How many know that after Wilson was incapacitated by a stroke, the United States was essentially run by Wilson’s wife, Edith Bolling Wilson, who was from a family of staunch supporters of the Confederate States of America. Former slave owners, the Bolling family “believed their former slaves were content with life on Rose Cottage Plantation and had little desire for freedom”.
Yet, the only thing I learned about Wilson in American History classes was that he was a great president who conceived the League of Nations. That he hated the Constitution is just a bonus for the progressive left because they share that feeling but this racism and anti-constitutionality is rarely talked about.
If Lee is repulsive to some, should not Wilson be treated in a similar manner because he is also repulsive to others? Destruction of history also destroys historical context – it is a method of postmodernist deconstruction and is nothing but an attempt to destroy the foundations of American culture.
The Rio Norte Line 
I agree 100%. Confederate Monuments are pieces of history and should be left alone. If some Southern state has a statue of a Confederate Hero, it should not be destroyed because some American citizen has a hatred of the Confederacy. The person with the problem should move their ass to some state that doesn’t have monuments honoring Confederate Heroes.
This is just one more example of the Federal Gov’t of America getting too controlling and overbearing. Let the STATES decide if something within their borders doesn’t reflect the history of that state.
It has nothing to do with Confederates per se. As They are Going after Jefferson and Madison and even Washington…. after ALL the Founding Fathers.
Knowing that MLK was a communist whose Speech writer and march organizer was a CPUSA boss….. Conservatives should be demanding that King’s statues be removed. The MLK Myth must be brought out in to the open.
There was a German philosopher who’s name evades me at the moment, who said she sees before the rise of the Nazis who said: “Were they burn books they will eventually burn people.” His remark was chillingly prescient then and it still is today. I’m sure this is not an original thought but as to our contemporary fascists are concerned, to control the future first they must destroy the past.