Removing Historic Monuments and Statues - Does the Term "Historical" Make it Right or Wrong?

by RubaDub 41 Replies latest jw friends

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  RubaDub

  After further review and thought, I really don't see how removing a monument or statue that may be truly offensive to a large group of people is in some way rewriting history.

  I think of Germany or other parts of Europe. You don't see swastikas on buildings or statues of Hitler or Mussolini or other upper level generals in public. Would it be good for a person (think Jewish) to drive around a city and see Hitler in a public park, even though it is "historical?"

  As an example, if you are in Munich (Munchen) Germany and drive 20 minutes or so out of the city you can go to Dachau (concentration camp) and tour the place for a few hours. You will see all of the Nazi stuff, the barracks, swastikas, gas chamber, ovens, pictures, you name it.

  From an historical perspective it is definitely worth the visit, though very creepy, at least to me. But I can understand that the stuff is not for everyday viewing or some sort of feeling proud about what happened. Wouldn't it be offensive to many to see a statue of Nazi Dr. Mengele in public?
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  Simon

  You have the concentration camps kept as a memorial and reminder of the holocaust.

  If I thought the removal of statues was from genuine feelings I could understand it, but it isn't. It's politically motivated and a tactic of the left and often they are vandalizing statues of leading figures in the abolitionist movement.

  These people don't know history. They don't care about history. They simply want to tear things down and replace them with their own symbolism.

  Why has the statue of Lenin in Seattle not been torn down or vandalized? Don't they care about the feelings of the millions who died?

  It's politics.
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  Sanchy

  I'd say two things:

  1) I don't want angry, unruly mobs going around toppling what they protest are statues of oppressive historical figures. That's not democracy.

  2) Christopher Columbus, Churchill and other great historical individuals of importance are neither Nazi nor equivalent to Dr. Mengele.
  
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  dropoffyourkeylee

  To me it has a lot to do with the intent of the statue, or more importantly, what current viewers perceive as the intent of the statue. In the American South, there are many statues that were placed in the Jim Crow Intimidation era that were intended as a sly statement of superiority. I think it is right to remove these images. But to extend the removal to just about any statue representing someone with a less than stellar history is too much.
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  mikronboy

  All initially noble movements are eventually hi-jacked by malcontents and / or anarchists in order to further their own ends. Basically they jump on whatever band-wagon is around and scream persecution at the first opportunity. Some people are fooled; some are not.
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  frozen2018

  Nancy Pelosi wants all the Confederate statues removed from the Capitol. I can't say I blame her given that the Confederacy is rooted in the Democratic Party. Who would want a bunch of statues around to remind people of that fact?
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  Anony Mous

  @dropoffyourkeylee:

  I do agree that some statues were placed with bad intent. But you don't always have to revere everyone that has a statue.

  We have a local park with a statue of Frederick Douglass, my kids ask "who is that" and then I can explain about what he did and what he didn't do. People think Frederick Douglass was a great guy and he did a great deal of good but he was also a politician, he advised Lincoln on the plight of slaves but he was also sympathetic of extreme violence and murder on the part of his cause and a womanizer. Most of what we know about him is from autobiographies and his poems, so take his story with a grain of salt.

  Same goes for Columbus, he was a great explorer but his primary objective was to get away from the religious persecution and his story is more nuanced than just discovering the Americas (or should I say, the Carribean).
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  Pete Zahut

  I think if we look at any countries history it will be full of offensive and barbaric things that the then leaders did even though at the time they were considered heroic. I was at a museum exhibit that displayed ancient Greek and Roman statues and I asked the tour guide why it was that these beautiful statues were always uncovered by archeologists. How did they wind up under so many layers of dirt?. He said that when each empire fell during some sort of uprising, the next group would pull down all the statues and bury them or just dump them and they'd become covered with sand and dirt over time. As the centuries passed, all was forgiven and old grudges forgotten and the modern people could took these statues at their face value. The U.S. is too new for that yet and there are those who are bearing a grudge even though as bad as they may think it is, what those people did, led us to the modern things we enjoy today even though there are some bad memories left over and things that still need to change. They were doing what they thought at the time was the natural/normal thing to do.

  Because we have so little history, part of me thinks it would be a shame to loose the relics of the past especially since we are able to understand that the things that were done back then wouldn't fly today and nobody is truing to bring them back. I think most people can live with these historical places but there are those who want revenge and they'll never be satisfied because there's no way to undo the past and they really don't want to get past this issue. It seems like they might loose part of their identity if they didn't have this grudge to bear.

  I'm glad no one tore down what's left of the Mayan ruins because of the horrific things they did to women and children and neighboring peoples. They serve as a reminder of how far humans have come even though we have a long way to go.
  
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  waton

  consider too, that statues of Hitler , The Duce, Saddam Hussein were toppled by the victors, white majority, excellence has not been toppled yet.
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  truth_b_known

  Nancy Pelosi demands 11 statues involving Confederate States figures. 11. Eleven. Who knew there were so many? I know. Nancy Pelosi. Nancy has know for all 30 years she has been in congressional office.

  So, why now does Nancy call for their removal? Why not when Barack Obama was president and the Democrats also ran the House and the Senate? The answer is simple: Politics.

  Nancy doesn't care. Nancy is just being a politician.

  We have a nation obsessed with victim culture and driven by emotions rather than reason. Why are there statutes erected to honor the losers? Every Confederate hero is a traitor and domestic terrorist of the United States? Simple - victim culture. The South looked upon themselves as victims.