To the editor:

President Trump was right the first time about the Charlottesville rioters; he condemned both sides.

Let me add a third guilty party — the Charlottesville City Council, who voted to remove the Robert E. Lee statue after it stood for nearly a century without controversy. Congratulations fellows; you can now pass on to your citizens millions of dollars in personal-injury lawsuits.

Left-wing violence by Antifa, the “antifascist” league that is pretty darned fascist, will always, tragically, provoke right-wing extremist violence.

But what about Robert E. Lee? Was he really a fascist and a racist? To the contrary, Lee represents that rarest of public men. He was a Christian gentleman who stated, “Let us pray for our nation. Let us pray for those who have never known Jesus Christ and redeeming love, for moral forces everywhere, for our national leaders. Let prayer be our passion. Let prayer be our practice.”

The removal of Lee’s statue, like ISIS destruction of Buddhist monuments in Afghanistan, is a repudiation of America’s Christian heritage and exhibits a lack of respect for more than 70 million Americans descended from Confederate soldiers.

Richard T. Hines

President

Save Southern Heritage

Mayesville, S.C.