When does honor become a symbol of evil?

Within hours of the events that transpired in Charlottesville, Virginia -- events that included unconscionable mayhem and death -- another event, promoting unity over discord and love over hate, transpired right here in Cape Girardeau.

A group of individuals, still reeling from the images and sounds delivered by media of all sorts, gathered on the lawn of Courthouse Park atop the hill overlooking the city's historic downtown. They stood in solemn solidarity.

And they stood just feet away from a symbol, some might say, of the oppression of human slavery: a stone monument honoring the dead soldiers in Southeast Missouri who fought under the banner of the Confederate States of America.

No mention was made of this juxtaposition in the news accounts that I am aware of. But let's face it. The current climate of social justice begs the removal of all statues and monuments to those who wore gray uniforms, a century and a half removed from the Civil War that split our nation for four horrendously deadly years.

The monument in question was presented to the city in 1931 by the United Daughters of the Confederacy. It was placed in the median of Morgan Oak Street as it approached the old bridge over the Mississippi River. In 1995, the monument was moved to Courthouse Park and placed near the fountain and statue of a Union soldier that was a gift, in 1911, from the Women's Relief Corps.

The monument is plain, compared to some of the elaborate obelisks and horse-mounted statues that have received so much attention recently. On one side, facing Lorimier Street, the letters "C.S.A." are inscribed at the top, and the date "1861-1865" crosses the bottom. On the reverse side, facing the river, is this inscription:

In Memoriam

Confederate

Soldiers South-

east Missouri

---

Erected by

Cape Girardeau

Daughters of

the Confederacy

The simple monument hasn't always enjoyed a benign presence in Cape Girardeau. In October 2011, someone spray painted graffiti on the marker. A good cleaning restored the monument, which is featured in the Convention and Visitors Bureau's brochure, "Driving Tour of Civil War Sites in Cape Girardeau."

Those who ardently seek the removal and/or destruction of anything honoring those who fought for the Confederacy, especially those in leadership roles in the Confederacy, insist that all vestiges of that most miserable human condition, slavery, must be eradicated.

But the plain fact is that the Civil War is part of our history, and living with reminders of our worst years can help us appreciate the best of our history -- a history, quite frankly, littered with atrocities as bad or worse than anything produced by the Civil War. The treatment of the indigenous populations by European invaders comes to mind, yet there are reminders of those conquests, including local ties to the Trail of Tears, everywhere.

What should worry all of us is this: How far must we go to avenge the sins of the past? If statues of Confederate heroes and markers honoring the Confederacy's fallen soldiers are legitimate targets for those espousing "love over hate" in rallies across the nation, then what is sacred? What about the more than 1,000 graves of the Confederate dead buried in Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery near St. Louis alongside thousands more who fought for the Union?

History, it is said, is written by the winners. But any honest historian will admit that manipulated facts serve no greater good than the lasting reminders of humanity's worst deeds. This is why Holocaust museums and memorials serve so important a purpose. This is why Nazi death camps are left standing.

Six words. Is that too much for our politically correct sensitivity?

In memoriam Confederate soldiers Southeast Missouri.

Joe Sullivan is the retired editor of the Southeast Missourian.