The violent conflict in Charlottesville, Virginia, two weeks ago has reignited an old, ongoing debate: How appropriate are public displays that commemorate the Confederacy?

Some have attempted to answer the question in a most inappropriate way: by taking matters into their own hands — tearing down statues and defacing monuments. That's vandalism and mob rule.

A week after Charlottesville, city workers removed three plaques commemorating Confederate soldiers from a Daytona Beach park, before dawn and less than 12 hours before a planned protest near the site by a local group opposed to President Trump. Whoever made that decision, it was done behind closed doors and on the spur of the moment.

Virtually all of these Confederate monuments across the nation have been standing for decades, many for more than a century. There should be no rush to tear them down, but rather a deliberative, transparent and inclusive process that considers each on a case by case basis.

Some were conceived in the years following the Civil War to honor local soldiers who had fought and died for the South. Others were erected in the 1910s and '20s, a time when many Civil War veterans were dying. It also was when the Ku Klux Klan, with its romantic view of the Old South, experienced a revival.

Still more went up in the 1950s and '60s during the civil rights movement. Many were situated in front of courthouses, government buildings and other prominent public spaces; like the efforts by several Southern states to appropriate the familiar Confederate battle flag during this time, these were overt symbols of official, institutional defiance to desegregation.

Some statues honor the likes of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, who for many represented the apotheosis of Southern nobility. Others place upon a pedestal Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, a slave trader before the war whose troops under his command massacred black Union soldiers at Fort Pillow, Tennessee. After the war, he was an early leader of the KKK (although his views on race later evolved to the point that he renounced the Klan).

To many Americans, there is no distinction: All Confederates were traitors to the republic, and unworthy of honor or respect.

The current battle over monuments shows once again that scars from the Civil War still run deep; cultural and historical divisions have yet to be reconciled. Some want to live in the past, while others want to forget it entirely.

Communities like Crestview with symbols of Confederate heritage on public grounds should be methodical about deciding their fate. Other cities have created commissions to study each monument and recommend a course of action, with the final decisions made by elected officials. At minimum, hold public hearings so all sides can participate, and let the democratic process play out. Don't make policy in the dark.

REPRINTED FROM THE NORTHWEST FLORIDA DAILY NEWS