Let's change inscriptions on Confederate statues

I say this with some sarcasm — I agree with Donald Trump. We mustn’t deny history. Removal of Confederate monuments could be construed as trying to bury our past.

So, should we leave these monuments in place? If we do their inscriptions should be corrected to tell the truth. 

Visit my Facebook page to see how I propose treating the monument to Stonewall Jackson in Richmond, Virginia. You’ll see that I have placed a corrected inscription on its base. The inscription reads:

Thomas Jonathan “Stonewall” Jackson

1824-1863

Stonewall Jackson was a domestic terrorist leader.

From July 1861 to December 1862, he was personally involved in killing, wounding and hostage taking of 49,014 American soldiers. Many of the hostages died in captivity in horrific conditions.

His Confederate “caliphate” was dedicated to one “moral” proposition, as outlined in the “Cornerstone Address” of its vice president in 1861. 

“Its cornerstone rests,” Alexander Stephens said, “upon the great truth that the Negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical and moral truth.”

By the beginning of the Confederacy’s active terrorist activities against the United States, it had enslaved more than 3.5 million people.

The author is publisher emeritus of The Riverdale Press.