I am replying to the Oxford Eagle “Letter to the Editor” of August 31, 2017 asking for “a call to action”. I am writing this letter to the 40 faculty members at Ole Miss, the 30 graduate students and the 25 former graduates of Ole Miss that signed this letter requesting Jeff Vitter, Chancellor of Ole Miss, to take executive action and take down the Confederate soldier statue at the Lyceum on the Ole Miss campus.

It seems to me that none of the 95 individuals understand why infantry soldiers fight in a war. If you believe that the Ole Miss freshman class that left the safety of Ole Miss to go to war and protect slavery and each of them were racists, then you do not understand human nature.

Men go to war to protect their families and homeland from invaders. Men are in war to protect their flag, a flag that they will die under, a flag they will be wrapped in when they are buried. Ultimately men in military units fight to defeat the enemy while protecting their fellow soldiers who have become their brothers.

For faculty members who have the protection of free speech under the first amendment of the Bill of Rights as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, and you have protection of your jobs because of tenure laws guaranteed by Mississippi state law, I believe that you have become “ideologues,” and your minds have been captured by the very liberal professors that have been your mentors, perhaps at ”elite” universities.

An ideologue deals in emotions, facts are to be ignored. It seems that it makes you feel good to make a statement that you are not a racist so that you have done something overt by signing a letter.

I am asking Chancellor Vitter not to listen to ideologues, but to listen to the 153 years of Ole Miss graduates who lie crying in their graves calling out: “honor our fallen soldiers”.

Many years ago, I watched a wonderful movie, “Fiddler on the Roof,” and from that movie I began to understand why maintaining tradition is so important and from that movie you will understand where this country, this wonderful country of America is heading. For those of you who care for the future of our country listen to Tevye the wise milk man and father:

“If you do not keep your traditions, you will be as shaky as a fiddler on the roof.”

Peter Kondos

Oxford, MS