If rejecting history, let's go all the way

There are movements in America to remove any and all monuments honoring the Confederate cause in Civil War I. As Teddy Roosevelt would say, "Bully!" But, then let's go all the way.

Let's wipe out anything related to the historical fact that America has the blemish of slavery on its "permanent record." George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Francis Scott Key all owned other human beings. So let's tear down the Washington Monument and Jefferson Memorial. Get rid of the national anthem, which seems to proudly proclaim: "No refuge could save the hireling and slave / From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave: / And The Star-Spangled Banner in triumph doth wave / O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave."

And Abraham Lincoln, while freeing the slaves, opposed blacks having the right to vote, to serve on juries, to hold office or to intermarry with whites. In the fourth Lincoln-Douglas debate, at Charleston, Illinois, on September 18, 1858, Lincoln made his position clear. "I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races."

Thus, to fully wipe the history of racism from America's past, Lincoln's Memorial must come down.

And while we're at it, does anyone know if they make white-out for parchment?

Richard H Skiba Jr.

Palatine