EDITOR’S NOTE: The following letter to the editor’s initial reference to “this” is to the resignations on July 20 of the entire police department in Kenly, N.C., citing a “hostile” work environment less than two months after Justine Jones began her role as the town’s newly selected town manager. (The KPD resignations all are with two-week notices.)

The New York Post reported that Kenly Police Chief Josh Gibson, a key clerk and five of his officers quit their positions to express their disapproval of Town Manager Justine Jones, who is considered a political progressive.

To cover the resulting void, Johnston County Sheriff Steve Bizzell maintained that his officers will be “stepping up” to the vacant positions.

All I read is defunding, as in the recent $770k played down to factually quoting Micah’s on don’t give the police anything. 

I never in my lifetime read of any other town with a coffin out in their police department — but Asheville sure did. 

I see no decrease in homicides (many unsolved) nor any decrease in fentanyl busts — which are just as rampant other crimes — and a, officer takes 14 months at least to be paid at his job, yet I see no real public leader express total support (for the police) in any of their public  speeches that defunded again $770k that was allocated to go to police, but went to other venues.  

Their (the APD’s) staff is already low — and who knows the success rate in cadets to get their one-day pay on graduation. 

Why would they really want to, if they are not getting total community support and ample resources to meet the increased crime calls? 

To save the Vance Monument, the narrative needs changing, new resident/artist says

I’m writing to address the preservationists seeking to save the Vance Monument.

As a relative newcomer to Asheville, I was captivated by the historical photos of the obelisk that stood in the center of town for decades.

It was a splendid and distinctive landmark for the city and it seemed to me a great mistake to remove it — a disappointing loss.

Of course, I sympathize with the people who viewed it as a symbol of the Confederacy that had to go, as it was dedicated to a prominent local man involved in the Civil War and the owning of slaves.

It’s also possible the local progressives objected to the obelisk as a phallic symbol and marker for traditional culture that must be swept away.

As an artist, I see the monument in a different light — to me it was a cultural touchstone that spanned the ages, harkening back to Egyptian antiquity.

Great cities —  such as Paris and Rome — prominently feature beautiful obelisks to honor this historical, cultural significance.

While I salute the people attempting to bring back the monument to Pack Square, I suspect they will not be successful as long as it is portrayed as a Confederate symbol.

The narrative surrounding it can be changed — the monument could be rededicated with a new inspiring vision that can speak to the present community.

The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact Bill is a nonpartisan effort that was started in 2006 with the goal of ensuring that the presidential candidate ticket that wins the most popular votes —  in all 50 states and the District of Columbia — will always be the Electoral College-winner. 

The bill would make every person’s vote equal throughout the U.S. It would ensure that every vote, in every state and the District of Columbia, will matter in every presidential election.

The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact is an agreement among a group of U.S. states and the D of C to each award all of their electoral votes to whichever presidential candidate wins the overall popular vote in all 50 states and the D of C. 

It will go into effect when enacted by states representing 270 Electoral College votes and will ensure that the candidate who receives the most popular votes will become president. 

Already 15 states and the D of C have passed the bill — for 195 Electoral College votes. 

Learn more about the National Popular Vote by going to their website: www.nationalpopularvote.com. This nonpartisan effort is supported by The League of Women Voters, Common Cause, Fair Vote and other organizations.

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“RICHMOND, Va. — A prominent Confederate statue that stood in Richmond for more than 100 years before protesters tore it down is back on display for the public…

“The Valentine Museum on East Clay Street will unveil their temporary exhibit showcasing the Davis statue to the public at 10 a.m. on Wednesday (June 22). 

“The statue is on loan from Richmond’s Black History Museum for six months. Valentine Museum Director Bill Martin said they had lengthy conversations on how to exactly display the statue. The team decided to display Davis the same way the public last saw it — on its side and covered in graffiti.

“‘We have other objects in our collection that address the history of racial oppression and Jim Crow laws here. We don’t have as many powerful objects that really tell the real story of what happened here in the summer of 2020,’ said Christina Vida, the museum’s curator of general collections. 

“‘We want to make our visitors when they come down they’re seeing a 2020 object….’

“Martin highlighted a survey of Richmonders that revealed 80% believed the Confederate statues should be displayed inside of a museum. 

“In 2020, a spokesperson for the Virginia Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans told CBS 6 that a museum setting would help the statues be protected and preserved. 

“‘Davis’ connection to the museum and the Downtown Richmond building spans generations. Martin said the statue is returning to the place where it was created. “We know that Jefferson Davis came to the small building to be measured. We have detail drawings and measurements of his face,’ he explained.

“Valentine created sculptures that were displayed all over North and South during the Civil War era that included strong messages about what was happening in Richmond. 

“Martin said those messages were reflected of what is now described as the ‘Lost Cause.’”

— Brendan King, WTVR.com

Following is Edgerton’s July 20 response letter:

have many questions about how these people took possession of this cenotaph, and what gives this racist organization the right to deem a great man like President (Jefferson) Davis a “racist.”

 The Davis family and the entire South should be up in arms about this criminal display. It ranks right up there with the hanging of the Southern Cross at Gettysburg College.

What would have happened if a cenotaph of Lincoln was dragged down and what remained of it was put on display in such a damaged condition?

How much longer and how much more of this sacrilege are the people of the South supposed to sustain. The legacy of President Davis and that of his family deserve better than this given by this sham organization. God bless you! 

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Following is Edgerton’s July 28 response letter:

I am still writhing that any organization that hails from the South, who would call itself a Black History Museum, would not only pass on the opportunity to set the record straight about the great President Jefferson Davis and his family who have no parallel in advancing the black race to social vertical mobility, and now suffer from the works of the wrongdoers (one who commits evil or illegal acts).

Even property owners who surrounded the Davis Plantations referred to the Davis property as the Freedmans land. The Davis servants were all literate; had their own schools and jurisprudence system — provided and taught to them by President Davis’s attorney brother. 

And not to forget how President Davis and his dear wife took into their home Jim Limber, a slave that was being severely beaten in the streets of Richmond, as their adoptive son.

To the designation “Black History Museum,” I say pure poppycock. 

Any Southern black who would turn his back on men like Lee, Jackson, Morgan, Forest and, most of all, President Davis, who would leave the halls of Congress with men on both sides of the aisle and Mason-Dixon line in tears because of his legal departure, would and do turn their backs on Jesus Christ, who they, too, call a friend. 

Sadly, my black family has no reckoning of how much wrong we have done to the Southern white man because of the prodding of those who don’t like him and especially because of the way he has loved us in lieu of our social status in the economic institution of slavery. 

In the words of so many of our African ancestors; we should do all that we can do to regain and retain the 

loving relations and relationships we forged with this man — in lieu of what those who do their best to separate him from us, the Constitution, the rule of law that it encompasses, and most of all, the Almighty God. God bless you!

                                                       H.K. EDGERTON

Chairman of the Board of Advisors Emeritus, Southern Legal Resource Center 

Member, Save Southern Heritage 

Honorary Life Member, Texas and Kentucky Division, Sons of Confederate Veterans 

Honorary Life Member, Forest Orphans Camp 1744 Sons of Confederate Veterans 

Honorary Life Member, Judah P Benjamin Camp 2210 Sons of Confederate Veterans 

Honorary Associate Member, Abner Baker Chapter 14 United Daughters of the Confederacy 

Honorary Life Member, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Georgia Orders of the Confederate Rose 

President, Southern Heritage 411

Asheville