In light of the tragic events in Charleston and Baltimore, it is now popular for public officials to focus attention on flags, license plates, monuments and most recently, a park named for Robert E. Lee, rather than determining the underlying causes of the clearly unconscionable behaviors demonstrated in past weeks ("City, county leaders want to rename Robert E. Lee Park," June 23). The alleged actions of the young perpetrator at Emanuel AME Church were those of a misguided, hate-filled and possibly deranged individual having nothing to do with General Lee. Nor was the violence, looting and ever-increasing loss of life in Baltimore City in any way connected. Are constituents' concerns for public safety to be allayed by such hollow and trivializing gestures on the part of elected officials Kevin Kamenetz and Stephanie Rawlings-Blake?
Rather than eradicating the memory of General Lee with the symbolic yet unsubstantive action of renaming the park, Baltimore and Baltimore County officials would be better served reflecting on the sage wisdom of President Dwight D. Eisenhower who recognized Mr. Lee's potential as a positive role model for youth by stating, "From deep conviction, I simply say this: a nation of men of Lee's calibre would be unconquerable in spirit and soul. Indeed, to the degree that present-day American youth will strive to emulate his rare qualities, including his devotion to this land as revealed in his painstaking efforts to help heal the nation's wounds once the bitter struggle was over, we, in our own time of danger in a divided world, will be strengthened and our love of freedom sustained."
Terry M. Klima, Perry Hall