It's really not a hard thing to understand and draw distinctions between. Sure, Jefferson was a slave owner, but we don't have statues to Jefferson BECAUSE he was a slave owner. He had a few other accomplishments as you know besides being like many others of his era and managing to own slaves.
The statues in question are there BECAUSE those guys fought for the CSA whose "corner-stone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth." So fighting for slavery, then for white supremacy in the form of Jim Crow is exactly why those guys were celebrated with monuments. The UDC that played a huge role in getting a big share of those monuments up were when the monuments went up unapologetic white supremacists, openly admired the KKK.
So what's a character flaw for guys like Jefferson, and Washington, and others is not for the people who erected the vast majority of those monuments - their support of slavery and white supremacy is WHY those men were were celebrated, and there's nothing else about their lives but their defense of the CSA and white supremacy to celebrate. Sometimes, like with a monument in New Orleans, the statue was to celebrate the literal lawless and violent overthrow of an elected government represented by many blacks with an all white government. That statue stood for over a century, a literal celebration of terrorism and violence committed to secure white supremacy in Louisiana.
