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To The Editor:

Mr. Jim Wilck’s recent rantings against our elected representatives on Farmville Town Council are lacking in substance, clarity and validity.

The removed Confederate soldier statue was given to the Town of Farmville in 1903 by a local branch of the Daughters of the Confederacy. That town council in 1903 allowed its placement without a public referendum on the matter. Hence, the statue’s removal without a referendum is legitimate. The statue belongs to the town, not to the county or outlying areas. Our council’s intent was to safely remove and protect the statue and to avoid physical conflict. This was accomplished.

The town owns and maintains a Confederate cemetery. Any who wish to visit the cemetery to pay respect to the deceased or to gaze upon statuary may do so to their heart’s content. Based on Mr. Wilck’s fervency for the town statue, I imagine that he spends a great deal of time there. His assertion that a relocation of the Confederate statue would harmfully impact local tourism is laughable. Saylor’s Creek Battlefield and the 31 mile High Bridge Trail should certainly satisfy even the most ardent Civil War enthusiasts.

Other than that which Mr. Wilck is trying to foment, there has been no hue and cry to return the statue to its former location. I have lived at the same address in Farmville for 45 years as an adult and grew up at Dowdy’s Corner. I feel that I have a finger on the pulse of this community.

Mr. Wilck does not. He is a relative newcomer to the local stage and has not invested his life to the betterment of this community. Now he attacks our earnest and well respected town council.

These accusations are ill informed, poorly conceived and insulting to the vast majority of us who have lived here, worked here and raised our families here.

This assault on our Farmville Town Council is, in essence, an assault on all of us.

Charles R. Green

Farmville