It really doesn't matter. IT REALLY doesn't, in the context of today and it's issues. To me what matters is lack of personal responsibility. AND empathy. Does anyone ever not smile back at you because you like or dislike Christopher Columbus? Does anyone ever not smile back at you because of your color? That began to happen to me after Trayvon Martin was killed. I didn't do anything wrong but people are mad at me.

People are using propaganda to rile up people as if it isn't bad enough. People are ignoring important stuff in order to get all het up. People are looking to get mad. You cannot legislate morality and you can't make lazy people work, but you can pass laws that at least on the face of things makes thing equal. People are gonna be grungy awful and bully weaker people and make fun of people with less and those with handicaps, and people are going to continue to talk down to nice people who worked hard and never did anything wrong but get a speeding ticket when they were 17.

People see what they want to see. Patience goes a long way to solve the problems of the world and also working for a living and saving some money for when things go down the drain so you don't have to have your hand out to the "gubmunt" or pass a fake twenty.....let alone, all should try to stay off the sauce. No matter if the sauce is too many martini's or Fentynal.

Choro&Swing, I also am a Vet and I totally agree with your comment about honoring oaths/pledges/commitments.

I wonder how many of today's demonstrators would actually 'answer the call' like our forefathers did in WWII and Korea and so many of us did during the Viet Nam era on our own or when our number was called?

I'm guessing that these protestors have all made the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag at some point during their young lives.

My hope is that they are never 'tested'...

It amazes me the people opposed to the destruction of history will not start to protest. The squeaky wheel gets oiled and the people who yell the loudest get their way. We are all Americans and history cannot be changed why do we want to change it now!

As a former teacher, it is not that they do a poor job teaching history in school. When you are taught at home by parents who teach you these issues it is bound to be ingrained in you. Students will usually learn the information for the test but it does not mean that they really believe those things. Speaking from many years of experience…

Cecil John Rhodes has a statue at Oxford University, and he too has fallen foul of the PC protest.
His statue is to be removed.
However, no one is giving up their Rhodes Scholarships, the oldest, and most prestigeous scholarship at the university in protest, and I am pretty sure, refusing one in the future!!

That could be dangerous as well...see my other comment.

As a former teacher with many years of experience it is not that the schools are not teaching the students well. The students learn the material for the test but that does not mean that they necessarily believe it. Parents teach their ideals to their children and those beliefs are ingrained in those children. We can only do what we can do with the children. History teachers have them at most 50 minutes per day (high school). How many minutes do they spend with their parents?

What’s next.....on censorship, burning books, closing libraries?

If we rid ourselves of all the proof of the atrocities of our past then in the future we will know longer have the reminders or the proof that they truly did happen.. In today's world if you can't prove it most will argue it didn't happen. What then pray tell will we use as our crutch or our excuse for the failures we're sure to face? If we ask WHY do you want to destroy that statue or burn that book the answer is always, we no longer want the memory of our oppression, yet you passionately continue to support the very party that willingly went to war, killed their own brothers, fathers or sons and died by the 100's of 1000's to keep you oppressed. How does that not remind you of your past oppression?

It's terrible that they are destroying all of our National Monuments especially sad is the destruction of memorials honoring our Veterans! 🇺🇸 I'm concerned also about Mt. Vernon which has been preserved all these years!! Scary times!! 🙏

Schools should get back to teaching the basics, reading, writing and math. Teachers that try to indoctrinate young minds in any ideology should be fired and teaching certificate revoked. Schools that allow this activity should be decertified and the entire decision making staff fired.

Yes, let's burn all the books. Forget our history.. Which President should we start with . or shall we conclude we really don;t need a government .. if we dont need police, might as well ditch the constitution - it was just slapped together by a bunch of racist white men anyway. Wait, wasn't there a book named Fahrenheit 451 ??

Just remember, those that ignore history are doomed to repeat it.

I dont see how or why opinions would be changed unless and until schools do. Children are not taught American history or civics in school. How can people vote when they have not been taught how our country actually works and why. I do not know if they are taught world history where they would learn the importance of the world wars. Instead, children are taught to be ashamed of themselves and of the US. Therefore it is reasonable to expect them to dismantle it.

Like taking an oath to uphold the Constitution!

You might want to think that you now LIVE in a southern state.
 

At one time the south was its own country. It no longer is, but it is still a part of their collective history. Try not to be quite so judgmental and unpleasant.

Answer the call.
 

I answered the call in 1966 and joined the NH Air National Guard while still in college. So that meant put of graduation and devote some time helping our country with the war effort...whether I agreed if we should be in this war or not. We were told we weren’t allowed to wear our uniforms off base and when we did people called us baby killers. I put in an extra year and came out in 1973. Even though I wore the uniform, had the Vietnam ribbon, and worked on the aircraft sending supplies over seas, I am not considered a Vet. The American Legion says I am not a vet...But thank you for your service. The Veterans Administration says I am not a vet but thank you for your service. Why? Not a day of Active Duty service on my DD214. What? Thank you for your service...now stop complaining. Inside I did my part...outside I am embarrassed. Hard to forget.

That is a good post. I would like to add my opinion (worth 2 cents). Am agnostic about the statues. But like to add that it believed that the Vikings set foot on North America 1st. Also, Asian people crossed the land bridge (now the Bering Strait) into Alaska then to Ca., the West and then the east. Then became named Indians and redmen, and etc...blah..blah. So, my opinion is that they were the 1st.
The Vikings and the Indians had no one person like Columbus who could be commemorated with a statue. Plus he was European, which was the dominant area at the time. The History of America was written by the winning or dominate culture. So, US History picked one person to focus on and it was Columbus.

Fine, tear down all of the statues, burn all of the books that reference the Civil War. Reduce that history to the spoke word only. Some generation in the future will relegate those stories as a myth on the level of Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny because there would be no proof it ever occurred. Then the word "racist" will have no meaning and no power.

Glorifying past atrocities and the men who made them is not the way to move forward, but we must never forget them in order for us to change for the better of our country. Please help toward making a better America. Thank you.

A lot of what's happening today reminds me of the movie "Big Brother". Hate the Eurasians!!!!

Well thought out post. Kudos.

Slavery existed in the New World long before Europeans arrived. Native Americans conquered neighboring tribes and made them their slaves.

Looks like we're going to have to tear down any statues of them as well. :icon_wink:

I agree with that. Staying dry was easy when Bobby sang the blues.

I believe that if I had the opportunity to attend one day of "liberal arts" classes in any major university in this country, I would be flabbergasted at what the radical, far left wing professors are teaching our children. Academia at the high school and college levels in this country have been taken over and dominated by a left wing ideology that doesn't want to change this country; it wants a revolution. And it's in position to make it happen, not caring a whit about the constitution. And one of the most effective means they have to effect their revolution is in the compliant media, where certain voices and opinions are simply not tolerated (see New York Times, op ed by Sen. Tom Cotton).

Politics politics The world turns

Next the future Native American rioters will tear down MLK statues and rename the streets again. They will demand to be paid for their stolen land from both white and black americans.

How about we all riot, loot, burn and protest against political correctness?

When I was in Germany in 1977 at a bazaar at an Army Base, I was shocked
to see framed pictures of Hitler being sold. I asked my sister, her husband was in the military, and she told me that people buy them ‘lest we forget’. Don’t know if or where they hung them. I was shocked.

I would not consider them as TRAITORS. They were products of their environment. They thought they were right. I am agnostic toward the question of their being traitors or patriots/heroes. They were products of their time and birthplace. ALL humans are (in the past or today). The philosophy----child is father to the man----applies here, I believe.

For me, next is Happy Hour.
The entire world is going insane. I give up!

What’s next?? Slave owner George Washington will become a pariah. Washington DC will be renamed “Justicetown” and the mall will become BLM Mall. The White House will be repainted in a blend of rainbow colors, brown and black with white window trim. Every town will have a George Floyd Boulevard that intersects with MLK Boulevard. The privileged in thIs new awakened society will be stripped of their ill gotten gains. A new political party, the Boko Hogan will supersede the Conservative Democratic Party. As Obama declared, “new America will be brown” sic.

I guess they should be burning all the dollar bills that are offensive.

Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.”



“How could you make appeal to the future when not a trace of you, not even an anonymous word scribbled on a piece of paper, could physically survive?”



“Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.”



“Not merely the validity of experience, but the very existence of external reality was tacitly denied by their philosophy. The heresy of heresies was common sense.”



“We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it.”



--1984 (George Orwell)

Personally I do not understand why the removal of statues, etc., is happening. It is our history and it makes me angry that this is happening.

Former teacher here....in the state I taught in, students ARE taught American History (required in junior year), required to pass a Constitution test twice (In order to graduate) before High school graduation (8th grade and 11th grade). Information is not shoved down their throats. They have books to read, papers to write, debates and discussions. The problem with history is ....there is not enough time in any one year of curriculum to teach EVERYTHING. And, every day/week/month/year, etc....more information is ‘added’ to history! Plus, there is no national framework with what is to be taught in each grade. It’s a state by state curriculum.

Wow...are you a teacher? Did you attend college? Not ALL teachers/college professors are as you describe. Too broad a statement.

I don't thing American History or World History are taught in jr or high school anymore, not even civics...oddly enough, social studies is!!

I don’t mind a few statues honoring the common southern soldier , but the statues of generals and southern political leaders should never be in a public place, put them in a private museum for a teaching moment . Jefferson Davis and Robert E Lee should have been hanged or spent long years in prison for the evil destruction they caused, so rich men could go on living a lifestyle off cheap labor . No other country in the world would honor the traitors in there countries like we do. Walk through any town in New England , and look at the long list of deaths caused by the so called Noble Cause of the Confederacy.

Great post! As to answers, I have multiple suggestions. Around 1965 civil rights legislation advanced social integration. A big problem was not legislating for ALL new neighborhood/developments needed to have rentals and houses filled by people in the % proportion that the nearby older city and area had. If 15% Black then they ONLY get 15% of the new house. Then 70 or whatever % would be White. And then Asian and Brown and etc. The point being the '60s was a great time to REALLY integrate and blend. It did NOT happen. That was a HUGE social failure and opportunity. It haunts us today. we have white ghettos and black ghettos
in many cities. The alternative of busing cost too much and accomplished too little. Busing lead to privileged charter schools and home schooling, again too costly in resources and social stability.
I have many other solution-like to look at Europe for their better social solution. Like strong unions in Germany yet little strife between unions and managemen/owners. Germany makes better automobiles than the US. Why not give them some credit and mimic that which they do right. Their is to much ethno-centricity and jingoism clouding our eyes. .....sermon over, thank you.

Good for you. I lived in Miami for a while. Cubans are smart, beautiful people.

Good post. I would like to suggest that Columbus is recognized as being the first in his world (Europe) to discover the New World, not the first to venture into what is now known as America. And I do believe that I recall some place up North where there is mention, or a monument that suggests that the Vikings (Northsmen?) were early explorers on this continent. I also was taught that Asians (?) migrated to this continent when the continents were connected and became what we now call American Indians, or for those that are PC, indigenous natives. American history is fascinating and if taught by a good teacher, does not have to be embarrassing. Our fore fathers thought they were doing a good thing, regardless of how we see it now. It should not be changed if we are to learn how to correct our current conduct. The TRUTH should not hurt but it should lead to enlightenment.