I loathe the deluded and historically-ignorant glorifiers of the Confederacy. But I respect those caught between two opposing and rapidly-hardening opinions on the meaning of our Civil War Lakeview Cemetery has my respect. It also deserves a far less whiny, far more nuanced editorial than your September 6 diatribe.
The editorial failed to distinguish enough between a private business like Lakeview and a government that both display monuments. Governments must respond in a timely and complete manner, as you demanded of Lakeview. Governments must keep public areas, like parks with troubling monuments, open. Private businesses can and should close if they feel threatened. It is not your role to question Lakeview's decision to act carefully by closing temporarily. Violence is now expected in this debate. Surely Lakeview felt their guests and employees were imperiled. Any subsequent inconvenience is a matter only between the cemetery and its clients.
You believe that Mr. Lohr and all with him say "I am not a racist" in a manner that reminds of Nixon saying the same except for "crook."
You seem miffed that Lakeview chose not to cooperate with your reporters. Then you are stunned that its response (again, a private matter) to its monuments issue is not your response. Your "protest" (re-burying elsewhere) is absurd, impractical and, most of all, meaningless. Unless accompanied with new headstones that proclaim "Re-buried in opposition to Lakeview and Confederates!," how would anyone know?
I suggest you instead use editorials to propose compromise and solution. Tell us, instead of complaining about private decisions, how we all can avoid violence. Tell us how we can respond effectively to a misguided and troubling reverence of the South's traitors and racists.
Jeff Hickey
Queen Anne
After reading your September 6 Op/Ed piece titled “The Last Straw”, I’m reassured to know that our city government is looking so closely at our well-being. They’ve protected us from plastic and paper grocery bags; also from Styrofoam take-out containers; now they intend to protect us from plastic straws and cutlery. They also want to protect us from sugary beverages, and with the new income tax, they’ll even protect us from spending our own money.
I’m being facetious, of course. This isn’t just about protecting us from ourselves. It’s about growing the city bureaucracy and generating revenue to support it.
We are becoming such a “nanny” city — so similar to nanny state California. Our city leaders should concern themselves with relevant problems such as how to dissuade Amazon from moving (as Boeing did years ago), rather than trying to control nearly every aspect of our lives.
J. Mucci
Queen Anne