No, this isn't about happiness. This is revolution. Radical organizations do this when they conquer an area. The destruction of memorials essentially removes that which the conquered population can return to, should an uprising of the defeated occur. They destroy the soul of a nation. If there is no remembrance of what was, then there is no basis for a future uprising. ISIS did this by destroying mosques, shrines, murals and statues that were centuries old. One may question, why do we want to remember generals of the Confederacy. We need to remember the mistakes this country made. We also need to remember that this country was founded by revolution and we need to know that we can revolt, even if the reason for revolution, in some cases, is depraved. More often than not, revolutions are a righteous cause. The secession of the South actually sparked the revolutionary spirit of the abolitionists to apply the Constitution to all people and make those in bondage free. Those statues remind us all, that the struggle for freedom is never ending and it will always be a righteous cause.
I think we should raise more statues. Sitting Bull, Geronimo, Tecumseh come to mind, because that was another horrendous mistake of this nation that we have forgotten all to easily because we have nothing visual to remind us.
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