I recommend reading following the column's link to the original speech. Even those that oppose the idea of removing the statue. 
Here are some lines:
1. "There is a difference between remembrance of history and reverence of it."
2. "These statues are not just stone and metal. They are not just innocent remembrances of a benign history. These monuments purposefully celebrate a fictional, sanitized Confederacy; ignoring the death, ignoring the enslavement, and the terror that it actually stood for."
3. "They were erected purposefully to send a strong message to all who walked in their shadows about who was still in charge in this city. "