or, alternatively “But what about the history!”
Apparently, some activists are done waiting for their various governmental agencies to figure out what to do with overtly racist / colonialist monuments set up to revere those monsters in public spaces.
So, they’ve decided to tear them down.
This, of course, has lead to pearl clutching and hand-wringing.
“Without these statues, how do we remember our past?!?”
Oh, please.
We do remember history. Also, we have a special place for losers and monsters: in books and in museums. We do not need special monuments. We do not need “Here’s that cool Slaver Dude who killed brown kids and had streets named after him in his honor.”
The best thing we can do is erase their victories from our land while preserving their stupid cruelty in our stories.
I’m saying this as a descendant of Ulysses S Grant and Zachary Taylor, and as one of the (many) founding families of Los Angeles. I don’t need my ego plastered all over at other’s expense. I don’t need my ancestor leering down over the descendants of -people he killed-.
That’s all this is.
Ego.
Monuments don’t last forever (“Ozymandius” anyone?). History and its understanding of it doesn’t remain stagnant. Those who feel we are somehow ‘losing’ something by seeing some cultural remnants pulled aside are only feeling the sting of hurt pride.
Or, to put it another way…
If the tribes from Africa could be pulled away from their homelands, forced to slave away together with tribes who may or may not have been traditional enemies, learn another language / culture / religion while hiding theirs, and STILL maintain some sense of their own identity and power and history, then I’m not going to shed tears over a few torn down monuments. People are -obviously- more resilient than that.