Eliminating Monuments

I’m a history buff.

I particularly like American History.

One of the things that make our country special is that every citizen has the right to peacefully voice their opinion and protest regardless of race, creed, sexual orientation, financial status, etc. When our founding fathers penned the documents that contained all of these outlandish, revolutionary, ideas no other country had any intention of ever offering their citizens such freedoms. Many countries, thanks in large part to the influence of the American template, have secured those same freedoms.

I now read that protestors and some government officials are taking down statues of the men who established our freedom to erase them from history. Ironic isn’t it?

Our protestors have no fear of consequences for their actions because our founding fathers, who they are upset with, risked their fortunes and lives to guarantee all future generations to have full use of these “God given rights.”

As I write this some of these protestors have taken over a portion of one of this nations larger cities. Two other major cities have been victimized by arsonists who were involved with the protestors (It is not reported that the original intent of either of the protests was to damage property). In one of the cities I write of the police station was burned to the ground. An MSNBC reporter stood with the fires in the background and said, “I want to be clear in how I characterize this: This is mostly a protest. It is not, generally speaking, unruly, but fires have been started and there is a crowd that is relishing that.” I looked up unruly in the Webster Dictionary, the definition is, “Not submissive to rule or restraint.” This is just my opinion, but, I’m thinking causing hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of dollars worth of damage could be defined as unruly behavior.

How about the Seattle takeover. The Mayor categorizes it as closing off a part of the city the same as we would for a block party. I wonder if businesses that are paying rent in that area feel the same, the Chief of Police characterized it as a violent takeover.

I am also inclined to believe that many of the politicians and reporters involved in these stories have forgotten that in America we are guaranteed the right to peacefully protest. Nobody has the right to damage property or injure others as a form of protest. Just a note about something that hasn’t been widely broadcast, over 700 police officers have been injured or killed during the “protests”. When injury, death, and excessive property damage occur I think it’s safe to call these particular protests riots.

I’ve read that the “protestors” want the statues honoring Washington, Jefferson and many Civil War Generals removed because they owned slaves. Fair enough. Slavery was a terrible institution. My love for history has taught me, however, that slavery was not originated in America, as some believe. It does go back to biblical times. The Exodus of the Jews from Egypt to “The Promised Land” was because many of the Jews had been held as slaves in Egypt. No, I’m not saying that makes slavery acceptable. I am saying that it surely did not start with America and a good argument can be made that it did end because of America.

Back to the statues. I wonder what will happen if those who want to take all of the statues away are successful. Will we stop teaching about The Civil War in schools? After all, who wants to be reminded about that terrible time in our nation’s history?

A man much wiser than me said that if we don’t study our history we are destined to repeat it. That makes sense. I learned about slavery in grade school history. I remember being appalled. I remember the teacher explaining slavery then a short time later we covered the Civil War in which the revised death toll is 618,222 souls. I remember how sad I was to hear that in that war many brothers fought against each other. Some families would remain separated forever because of the war.

I feel, those statues honor men who were good men, warts and all. Hard working men from the South who wrongly believed their way of life should be preserved and men from the North who felt it was not acceptable to hold men in bondage. It sounds outrageous doesn’t it, that there could be disagreement about that. Then I think that something like that fight is taking place right now. Some of the same people tearing down statues probably feel abortion is acceptable while others who are fighting against the statues might believe it is killing an unborn child. In the year 2220 will protestors want pro choice people of the year 2020 removed from their place of honor? Will they insist the statues that replace Washington, Jefferson and Lee be torn down because of a change in the political climate?

What do you think?