Interestingly, the big issue on Jon Oliver’s show tonight was the Confederate monuments and his take was that monuments honor that depicted by the monument and, therefore, should be taken down, placed in museums if we want to deal with them properly, affixing to them explanations of what they mean and/or should mean.
I say this, that they should be allowed to stand where they are because what they really say is something very important about the society that built them and placed them where they stand and if some celebrate the persons and/or events depicted, there is made apparent a critical problem that is about our now as much as the then in which they were erected: the public is incapable of understanding the real meaning of its heritage and that ignorance that existed then and, obviously, still exists now that causes some to understand the significance of these statues historically and the significance of our history for today.
Let the monuments stand and teach what needs to be taught so that at some point the ugliness that is represented in the existence of these pieces will be recognized for what it is, ugliness, and that ugliness will be tackled in a meaningful way, by ridding people of it, by building a public that is thoughtful and humane to the point where none will see glory in those ugly people and the events they in which they participated.
To get rid of them now is to forget too soon and to forget, like it or not, is to forgive.
