There currently is this really sad trend in the United States to systematically dismantle aspects of the nation’s history. Across many different, predominantly “southern” states, monuments and artifacts of the the Civil War era are being removed, taken down, renamed, etc.
We need to understand that virtually EVERY NATION past and present has chapters in its own history which are problematic or troublesome. Show me ONE country that does not…
A country’s history, its culture, its evolution is a sum of infinitely many human experiences and periods of trials-and-errors, ups-and-downs. Every civilization has had its own unique path in finding its way, discovering itself along the way, making adjustments as needed, sometimes moving forward, sometimes back-tracking a bit.
We cannot simply UNDO history, or worse yet, pretend that certain things did not happen, did not exist, or never took place, by simply arbitrarily “erasing” traces of it from our records, our archives, our memories or consciousness. Nor SHOULD we TRY.
We simply need to acknowledge the past, and all it included. We need to own it, and take responsibility for it. We need to view it in the context of the time and place in which it occurred and where we were COLLECTIVELY at that time, in terms of our consciousness. And we need to do what we can to LEARN from the past.
Mistakes, errors in judgment, social injustices, etc. … whatever you wants to classify a society’s mis-steps as, cannot be seen as a “learning experience” if we simply deny their existence and avert our gazes from them, in a stubborn “I don’t see you, therefore you don’t exist”- attitude.
I would admonish anyone who partakes in this new wave of senseless “political correctness”-scheme to UN-view and UN-do aspects of history, politics and identity, to rather find other productive ways to NOT repeat those types of chapters in our history.
Rather than take “offense” at historic symbols, banners, flags, monuments, commemorations, etc. of people, events, places, and what not, USE them as learning tools and instruct the young and impressionable accordingly, on WHY those times were not ideal and should not be repeated. Allow them to remain visible throughout society as “lessons” and “reminders”.
