You hit the nail right on the head. This has nothing to do with "hate" and it has everything to do with 1) rewriting history and 2) advancing a victim mentality.
This statue has stood for over 100 years and all of the sudden NOW it is a symbol of hate and oppression??? If anything, it should remain if only to serve as a reminder of just how far we have come as a nation.
The problem is men like David Fizdale don't want to admit that we've come a long way. If that were the case, they would have nothing to be offended at and rail against. If this statue does come down, do you think that's were they'll stop? There will always be another symbol of "racism" or "hatred" that will need to be attacked.
Thanks for sharing your opinion @sirstacksalot. I'm of the mind that we can't just get rid of the monuments and try to forget about history even if it's unpleasant? They could be used as reminders of how far we come too. For right or wrong alot of historical ppl have done things that today would be considered unsavory but you have to understand that those were different times. It's also possible those ppl could have done things that have benifited history. If we tried to erase every racist, woman beater, liar, cheater, child abuser, thief and murderer that's ever existed the history books would be empty lol