The vanquished can be honored, and it is important | Letters

To illustrate a recent opinion, the author quotes Yale historian David W. Blight regarding monuments of heroic Confederates, a generation after the Civil War.

“Their message (Southerners) was a victory narrative about overturning of the Reconstruction and the establishment of white supremacy.”

There’s no doubt that this was a meaningful intent – an effort by the vanquished to regain their standing – like the Germans who chose to engender World War II instead.

Every era in history has lost their civilization to a victor – even the 200-year-old Bourbon monarchy. How should we know our own history accurately if every trace of the vanquished is removed? Weren’t both sides participants in that history, all of them Americans, who had established a new civilization, both urban and agrarian, many whose ancestors fought in the Revolution?

Yes, slavery was a vile and unsustainable practice that Southerners sought to perpetuate, but that is not all that the Southern culture was. The city with the earliest and richest cultural offerings was Charleston.

What Professor Blight fails to acknowledge is the tragic emotional impact of loss for Southerners – not only in war but to their accustomed way of life, much of which was enviable, not only for the planter class. They grieved for the past and their heroes. Every culture elevates and mourns its heroes and loved ones. It’s a feeble effort to hold on to and honor the lost. Who are we to dismember their sentiments? What’s next: Stonehenge, Easter Island, the Pyramids?

Kate McClintic

Beaufort

Historic names

alive on St. Helena

The natives of St. Helena Island, those who have lived on the island for 40 years or more, have no problem with the designation name “plantation” on our beautiful island; it is not used.

We are slightly larger than, and just north of, Hilton Head Island and are divided up into the dozen or so plantations that were being farmed here before the Civil War. The entire island devolved into villages of freedmen after that war, much as Hilton Head did. There are several prayer houses still standing.

If you ask St. Helena Islanders where they live, they will say “Scott” or “Hopes” or “ Cuffy” or “Tom Fripp” (where I live) or “Anne Fripp,” a lovely neighborhood of close relatives that even have a sign up reading: “Anne Fripp Community Welcomes You.”

Of course, these are the plantation names without the controversy.

Anne Pollitzer

St. Helena Island

Retirement

well-deserved

Everyone deserves to retire, and there is no employee at The Island Packet who is more deserving of a withdrawal from continuous professional responsibilities than David Lauderdale. Surely he is the longest-serving employee in the Packet’s half century of existence.

Because of David’s remarkable longevity, and because of his keen interest in Hilton Head Island and the South Carolina Lowcountry, there likely has never been nor will there ever be anyone who is personally more familiar with the colorful cast of characters who have comprised this singular community and region. He has interviewed many scores of people during his years of service on our behalf. In the process, he has made us feel like family.

Probably more than any other individual in the island’s history, David Lauderdale has consistently attempted to meld the Black, white, and Latino communities into one well-integrated whole. If that has not yet occurred (and it hasn’t), it is not for lack of trying on the part of the irrepressible Mr. Lauderdale.

His wit, wisdom, and winsome writing style will be greatly missed by all of us. He is the closest thing we will ever have to a completely-rounded oral historian for this sceptered isle.

Other newspapers have had their favorite local columnists. We who settled here have had our lives uniquely enriched by Lauderdalian gems every week for nearly half a century. Blessings on you always, David; you have been an immeasurable blessing to all of us.

John M. Miller

Hilton Head Island