Gov. DeSantis, tear down this statue!

As we drive our daughter around the Southeastern United States in an RV we can barely manage, we’ve followed along with the growing unrest in cities with some of the darkest histories of slavery.

We’re having a blast showing Ella Joyce an inspiring countryside, but are at a loss over how to describe the deeply divided history of sites that hold a grim place in American history and represent a painful past for our African American brothers and sisters.

That our nation has been forced (rightly) to confront its ongoing institutional racism over the past two weeks only makes those conversations more difficult.

The take-away for us is simple: Gov. DeSantis, tear down this statue.

We’re talking about the one plopped onto the Florida Capitol lawn in 1923 that still stands today in commemoration of a vile time. It was erected to honor “the heroic patriotism of the men of Leon County who perished in the Civil War of 1861—1865.”

But debates about Confederate statues aside, the battles listed on the monument are anything but, as Kevin Cate articulately points out in this column. One, in particular, the battle of Olustee, was one of the Civil War’s most notorious massacres in which historical record suggests Confederate soldiers didn’t pursue fleeing Union troops because they were “too busy shooting n*****s.”

Now we’re finding ourselves trying to explain the Confederate flag and all it represents to a little girl beaming with life, love and innocence.

When we explain slavery and its context in the Civil War, her face immediately shows the alienness of concepts she clearly finds abhorrent. She doesn’t, nor do we want her to, understand why anyone would want to own another person. Moreover, she doesn’t understand why one set of people could be considered better than another or why anyone would fight over it.

Hatred is learned, not born.

Add to that what we’re seeing in the news day after day in the George Floyd protests — the blatant displays of implicit bias — the callous disregard by some that black lives don’t matter because all lives matter, and the fallacy that represents.

You can do this, Governor. Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry had a confederate monument removed in his city overnight Monday despite his previous reluctance to do so. He admitted he had “evolved” on the issue.

His bold move, reversing course at great political risk among his conservative base, shows clearly, it’s never too late to change your mind and right the wrongs of the past.

With the Capitol monument’s dark history, it’s a no-brainer. We haven’t heard much from DeSantis on this issue, but the issues of today present a straightforward way for him to express himself.