Letters

Rick Wilson is — or, more correctly, was — a life-long Conservative Republican political strategist, media consultant and author. Like many patriotic Republicans, Wilson left the party during the Trump administration, to stand up for true Republican principles.

In 2018, Rick’s book, “Everything Trump Touches Dies,” became the No. 1 nonfiction book on The New York Times best-seller list. While Rick’s book details all the bankruptcies, lawsuits, business and professional failures of Trump, no one could have predicted that the current political unrest, caused mainly by Trump’s bigotry, would have such unintended consequences.

The Black Lives Matter movement was started by a small group of young community people, to protest the death of innocent young Blacks, at the hands of local police. These cases were not new events in the Black community, as they have occurred too many times over the past 400 years, and the BLM movement might have ended with nothing changed.

So, how did we get to where we are today? Rick Wilson put it in the title of his book: “Everything Trump Touches Dies” — and this time, it is the Confederacy — long overdue.

In 1861, a group of Army officers and enlisted men betrayed their oaths, deserted their posts and took up arms against our country. Their treacherous act, known as the War of Secession — there was nothing “civil” about it — caused the death of more than 500,000 Americans. So, when the war ended, no statues were erected to these traitors.

In the mid-1950s, when the civil rights movement was starting, a group of Southern segregationists, in a move to intimidate Black Americans, glorify the Confederacy and the vile institution of slavery, erected statues to these traitors. Today, thanks to the BLM movement and their supporters in all communities, these statues are coming down.

“Duty, honor, country” — General Douglas MacArthur, West Point, 1962.

Stephen Ring

Hampton Bays