[Val656@aol.com]

I was always taught to learn from the past not to tear it down so you can forget. Am I doing it wrong?

[Bellavita]

I will rest easy when any sign of paying tribute to traders and people who fought for the right to own a human being is erased. I will rest when the faces on Stone Mountain are removed. I will rest when racist are ashamed to fly the Confederate flag. I will rest when the KKK is disbanded I will rest when Nazis are gone from the face of the earth I will rest when the Red Man is not looked down on I will rest when we don’t discriminate on people who are different than white men And are equal. We have much work to do.

America won the war the south lost. We don’t honor traders and people who fought to own a human being. That is history Confederacy is dead bury the damn thing forever

[Neils]

Only selective history is being removed. Nothing equal about what is going on.

MLKs dream has been corrupted and shattered

[Strongel]

We are slow to learn. Talk solution, what we have learned. It’s easy to rehearse the problems and takes no critical thinking but solves nothing.
Statue or no statue, what did we learn from this? What did we miss? Are we better or worse for it?

This country imperfect as it is has been the envy of many nations. Why?

Slavery, racism and every other division where people are different has occurred all over the world and still goes on today. We are not the “only” country. We haven’t solved the problem 100% but have made headway. It is not systemic but pockets of individuals. How can we hold individuals responsible? How can we shut up those who stand on a soapbox for profit to blame everyone and stop the corrupt media for showing this along with their misleading stories?

[Strongel]

Originally Posted by Bellavita

America won the war the south lost. We don’t honor traders and people who fought to own a human being. That is history Confederacy is dead bury the damn thing forever

I agree with Morgan Freeman. Stop talking about it. You keep it alive by talking endlessly about it.

[Stu from NYC]

Originally Posted by Bay Kid

Will people be happy once all the remembrance of the past is removed?

No they will find new things to be offended about.

[noslices1]

They have already attacked the National Anthem. Currently, there is a movement to change it to something less “War like”, like Kumbaya or We are the World, or maybe the “Barney” song.

[NFRicaS]

Originally Posted by Stuart Zaikov

Makes one wonder why black leaders do not address this but instead look to inflame people by bringing hatred to the police.

The only thing that the black community seems to get out of this is free stuff by the ones doing the looting. Wonder how many jobs were lost due to this rioting and destruction?

FYI...Most of the looting burning, etc. was begun by white nationalists and neo-nazis...To incite chaos so blacks would be blamed...

[mepoole]

Originally Posted by Bay Kid

Will people be happy once all the remembrance of the past is removed?

Never in a million years!!

[Warren]

We have a museum in Washington DC that remembers the holocaust. May be there should be national museum for the American civil war. May be there could be state museums. These statues could be relocated to such places. The black history museum might like some.

May be it is time we start putting a time limit on how long we honor someone with a statue or a name on some land mark.

Be careful of the slippery slope you go down. People like JFK, LBJ and MLK were flawed, too. Where did the money come from to create Yale and Duke university's?

[La lamy]

Originally Posted by blueash

Where are all those statues to Hitler and Stalin and Saddam here in the USA so we can remember our history? Now is certainly the time to begin erecting a few nice Fidel Castro monuments. Let's be sure we have reminders of all the enemies of America in our squares so we don't forget our history. Certainly the Klan was a big part of American history. Be sure to name a few streets Ku Klux Klan way so our grandchildren can ask about the origin of the street name. If you petition the Morse family maybe you can get a new section of the development down South to honor George Wallace and David Duke, Bull Connor and James Earl Ray.

To help remember our history we need Lynching Lane and Segregation Street. We need Poll Tax Path and whatever creative and catchy remembrances you can imagine so we all remember our history better.

Or we can honor our better examples of citizenry. We can find people who believed in equality of whites and blacks, native americans and Asians. We can honor those who fought bigotry instead of those who so strongly believed in inequality that they were willing to kill Americans and died themselves rather than accept that POC were entitled to emancipation, the right to live with their spouse and children, not be subjugated and sold. Is it too much to ask that those statues honoring such traitors be torn down? Is it too much to suggest that naming a building or a street or a military facility for a bigot and a racist be undone? I am sorry it hurts your feelings that "those" people are getting their way finally with this issue. But I'll take you seriously when you suggest we do really need that Adolph statue to be sure we can all remember.

Remember more Americans died because of the war flagged by the Stars and Bars than the total of the wars instigated by Germany, the Viet Nam "conflict" Korea and the Revolutionary War combined. So let us all be sure to erect a few more statues honoring the heroes of the traitorous and racist Confederacy.

Well said. The argument about statues of evil people being a 'needed' reminder of the past is ridiculous. It's a glorification. Same with naming of streets, squares, buildings, cities etc... Remembering the past of evil people is necessary, but it belongs in museums and history books. Would you keep an abusive partner around you all the time so you don't forget the past?!!

[roscoguy]

Originally Posted by billethkid

What is being completely overlooked is the timing/date of when these remembrances were authorized/constructed.

Ooooh, I think you (inadvertently) hit the nail on the head. How the US Got So Many Confederate Monuments - HISTORY

"Most of these monuments did not go up immediately after the war’s end in 1865. During that time, commemorative markers of the Civil War tended to be memorials that mourned soldiers who had died, says Mark Elliott, a history professor at University of North Carolina, Greensboro. “Eventually they started to build [Confederate] monuments,” he says. “The vast majority of them were built between the 1890s and 1950s, which matches up exactly with the era of Jim Crow segregation.” According to the Southern Poverty Law Center’s research, the biggest spike was between 1900 and the 1920s.

In contrast to the earlier memorials that mourned dead soldiers, these monuments tended to glorify leaders of the Confederacy like General Robert E. Lee, former President of the Confederacy Jefferson Davis and General “Thomas Stonewall” Jackson.

[cleanwater]

It’s being re built to be better, and hopefully that’s always the way.

[roscoguy]

Originally Posted by GoodLife

I'm interested in what context removing statues is going to solve the problem.

That alone obviously won't heal the damage done by centuries of racial violence & prejudice. It won't "solve" any specific problem, but it would sent a very belated message that we aren't proud of the people that led the fight to preserve the institution of slavery. Maybe if the message is clear and sincere enough, progress could be made.

[riley2011]

Some people will never be happy!