Finding a Washington highway named after Jefferson Davis here in our state leaves Rep. Hans Dunshee feeling outraged (“Jefferson Davis Highway here? Legislator outraged,” news story, Jan. 24). Well, his actions leave me feeling a little outraged too.
If he felt like something needed to be done about the highway name and marker, he could have done so with little fanfare. Instead, he feels the need to bring the “issue” to a newspaper. His comments about tearing the monument out himself are laughable, to say the least. If he felt that way why hasn’t he done so? Perhaps he is waiting for a news photographer to arrive.
In regard to his comments about honoring Davis, and by inference the confederacy, being an embarrassment, I would advise Mr. Dunshee to move on from studying the Gettysburg Address and try looking at the Civil War as a whole. He would find that slavery was only one of the issues that divided the North and South. There is no doubt that a majority of those who fought for the North would strongly disagree with the notion they were primarily fighting to end slavery. In the South they fought for their freedom and rights, while those with the North primarily fought to retain the union of states.
There are people, ideas and acts on both sides which should be honored and remembered. I don’t agree with everything Davis, Lee, Jackson and others stood for and defended in the war, but I respect them as much as I do Lincoln, Grant, Sherman and those who fought against the South. Mr. Dunshee should find another way to get his name in the papers – perhaps a little actual work in Olympia, for instance – and cut out the grandstanding.
Stanwood
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
