Commentary: One perspective on the Confederate soldier statue debate

First, I want to congratulate the citizens of Warren County on having a civil conversation on whether to remove the statue of a Confederate soldier from the courthouse grounds. This conversation would not have been possible 10 years ago. And it would not have been possible without bloodshed 60 years ago.

That is progress – Slow progress. But progress.

My name is Stan Brooks. I have lived in Front Royal most of my life. My roots are deep in Warren County soil. I love Warren County. I cannot help it. I grew up here; witnessed its ever changing, ever evolving political social nature. I saw from a white person’s view the racial struggles. I saw my own family’s struggles and evolution with these issues. I saw and see my own.

I make no judgement on yours.

And for the record even though it makes no difference for they are not me and I am not them, I have two great-grandfathers and several great-uncles whose names are on that statue. I don’t pretend to know what they were thinking when they took up arms in 1861. I do not judge them. They were of a different time. They, like me and you, were products of what they knew. And in those days their view was not of a wider world.

Having said that, over the past half century I have read almost everything I could get my hands on about the war between the states and I’m pretty sure I could hold my own with anyone who cared to make a day, or a year, debating the mindset of a Confederate soldier or a Union one for that matter. I’m not writing this to debate the past – that is in the end an exercise in futility.

No, what I’m interested in is the future. It is the future that counts. Does removing this statue aid the future evolution of Warren County?

Is it a better idea to leave it where it is or to move it to a piece of private property?  Some would argue to destroy it, but that is not the debate here. Only whether to move it. In an ideal world none of us would take offense at any statue. But statues are symbols.  Ours and most cultures recognize them as such. They are there to remind us of great people or great deeds done in the name of service to humanity, to our country or our gods, or to symbolize an event.  Certainly a statue of a Confederate soldier could fall into the last of those categories. And it is certainly debatable as to whether it falls into others.

Is that reason to leave it stand on the grounds of our center of justice for Warren County? Some would argue it is. And with some degree of logic I think. After all history is important to recognize, even with all its warts. And of course bravery is a trait we all admire. I doubt one could question the courage of the average Confederate soldier or the average Union soldier.

A footnote here: Robert E. Lee said after the war that he felt there should be no monuments to the war, north or south. That it was too terrible of an event to memorialize.  Perhaps in these divisive times we should study and remember the horrors of war.

But here we are today discussing in a mostly civil way whether this statue, which was a symbol of a separate nation from ours, one which was unjust and founded on white supremacy, should still stand on the courthouse grounds in Warren County.

We are not killing each other over slavery, or hanging innocent black people in front of hundreds of cheering citizens. We are not blocking black students from entering Warren County schools, or watching marchers beaten for seeking voting rights on black and white TV screens.

Progress – It’s slow, TOO slow, but progress.

Now we are debating whether a statue that represents a nation built on white supremacy should remain on the hallowed grounds of equal justice for all. Warren County may vote to keep this statue there for now. And that will be a representation of what Warren County is.

For me. I hope not.

For me I think it is an act of understanding, of love, of respect to remove it from its place of prominence, to understand its effect on our fellow citizens and on our own conscience; to move forward toward a slightly more just society, toward a society that’s gets more diverse every day, and one in which we all will need to do our part to understand the other and to compromise when needed.

Moving this statue is a compromise.

Leaving it on the courthouse grounds is not, nor is destroying it.

Good luck to us all.

Stan Brooks
Front Royal, Virginia

(Editor’s note: Stan Brooks is a former Front Royal mayor and town councilman.)