I don’t know what to think about tearing down statues in the South. Removing them does not make the Civil War go away, nor does it make the persons depicted on them any more or less human and error-prone than they were in life. We are human, and if history is doomed to repeat itself, then we will continue to make stupid mistakes. That doesn’t mean we can’t recognize the good things people do, even if we make it a point to also make note of their flaws.
When Shakespeare noted that our evil deeds remain long after we die while the good is buried with us, he probably had no idea we would be coming to this. Sure slaves built and maintained the South under many evil watchful eyes, but good people–black and white–live there now, free except for the emotional baggage they keep bringing up every once in awhile. For some, it is an emotional scar, but for others it is just like carrying around a burr to sit upon on occasion to remember how our past was so hurtful.
Sure we need to recognize that our history had some dark times. We are certainly not guaranteed a future without more of them. Taking down representations of our history won’t change who we are, were or will be. It will simply warp the remembrances of our past and lessen the chance that we may learn about how to improve what is to come.
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