Practically every cemetery in the state, and nearly every county courthouse lawn bears a marker or monument to the Confederacy, usually but not always to the enlisted soldiers.

It’s sad to think they might become the victims of ahistorical mob destroyers as the lone Rebel sentinel was on the courthouse lawn in Durham, North Carolina. But in our Selfie age, where Social Media promotes feelings over facts, such destruction may be inevitable. And so too the inevitable backlash.

Thus Mississippi State Rep. Karl Oliver is begging for a state law blocking vandalism, which would only be useful for prosecutions after the fact. But first he let loose his invective for the mob, saying anyone pulling down a Confederate monument should be lynched. He duly apologized, but sat stone-faced as 11 black colleagues castigated him.

“The Confederate monuments have been in place for almost a century and a half, and it is unreasonable to make an issue of them today,” writes David Goldman at PJMedia. “But people are not in the market for reasonable.”

Indeed they are not. We can only hope that the decent men who fought can be separated from their wicked cause and the majority of the markers and statues left alone. It may be too much to hope for.