Today, it’s the Confederate memorial. Tomorrow, a march on D.C.?

I was at the monument rally at the Bradenton courthouse on Monday. I wanted to see if this was really about racism or politics.

I wanted to ask the loudest people there one question:

“If a great American, Martin Luther King Jr., was not offended by the statues, why are you?” I ask about 25 people, both white, black, male, female, young and old. I got the same answer from all of them: No answer. Some even acted offended by the question.

I stood by the stage and listened to all the speeches. As I listened to them talk, I realized they all said the same thing: “The monument represented slavery, and they were tired of being reminded of it on a daily basis and the monument should go.” After one man was interviewed, he turned to his friend and asked him where the monument was. Really!

The monument talks about Confederate soldiers and veterans. My wife and I toured Washington, D.C. We went to all the monuments and memorials, Arlington Cemetery, the Capital building, Library of Congress and the White House. The war memorials grab your heart and make you proud to be an American.

We have one problem no other country has: Most of us live our personal lives by our faith, but we live our public life by our Constitution. The First Amendment is the most powerful and controversial of all amendments. It causes problems, but it makes us a great nation.

I ask myself where will all this controversy end. They will organize a million person march on Washington, D.C., to tear down the monuments. Sooner or later, the 20 million veterans, both black and white, will say, enough is enough.

This story was originally published August 24, 2017 at 2:59 PM with the headline "Today, it’s the Confederate memorial. Tomorrow, a march on D.C.?."