Since everyone is so hell bent on erasing past history, how about we only report what happens on any given day and anything prior to the current day is erased and can't be spoken about again. As they say 'the past is past - forget about it'.

Wayne you don’t celebrate the past? I think you misunderstand the removal of certain racist, sexist, and rapist monuments being removed so that we as a country may move forward in a positive way. For instance, I have known as a kid and still know not to enter an establishment that hangs confederate flags(it stands for white supremacy and I’m not allowed)

I understand your reluctance to go into a place with a Confederate BATTLE flag (most people wouldn't recognize the actual Confederate flag) and I certainly would not fly one, but I think you misunderstand the people who do. In most cases it's not a symbol of racism to them, but rather a pride in their southern heritage and a symbol of a sense of independence. I think a lot of people who do fly those would be surprised at your interpretation.

In many it is insensitivity, not white supremacy. Not all, surely, and you will find a few who are racist, but I suspect the majority are not. I fear whites and blacks see things differently; whites see a statue of, say, Jefferson Davis (who did not want to be President of the Confederacy and supposedly broke out in tears when he was told he was elected) as a memorial to a chapter in history and to states rights. Blacks see it as a symbol of slavery, racism, and white supremacism. But that is not true of all black people; many in the south see those statues the same way as their white neighbors. Charles Barkley, for example, said he never worried about these statues one way or another. Anger at them appears to be a rather modern manifestation. There are bigger fish to fry, both in America and elsewhere, in my opinion. Slavery is still practiced in Africa, for instance. I think that would be a more fruitful target of angst. Be that as it may, what will stop a future generation from tearing down statues of Harriett Tubman, or Martin Luther King, when they become culturally unpopular? Erasing your past is a dangerous game. It's how tyrants have traditionally controlled a population. I am of a mind that we should remember all of it so we don't make the same mistakes again. Nobody in history is perfect; you have to judge a person by the times they lived in. It should also be pointed out that a man like Jefferson no doubt kept his slaves to protect them; a free man was in great peril in those days because some jackass would come along and try to claim he was a runaway and the freedman would wind up in worse shape than before. It was a common practice by abolitionists to officially keep their slaves so they would be kept safe and be provided for. There were black slaveholders too, I might add, quite a few of them, and many of them had large holdings of slaves for this same reason. So if we tear down Jefferson statues because he owned slaves we do everyone a great disservice. Anyway, those are my thoughts on the matter.

Dana asks to add some ideas:

As to the idea of forgetting, or ignoring, the past, we do so at great peril. We really need to know what was done, good and bad, because we need to be able to evaluate where we were and how far we have come. Only then can we begin to determine how far we need to go. This relates to just about everything in life, not just race relations. It relates to the environment (and although we do a better job than most countries, I don't think anyone would say that we couldn't improve in this respect). It relates to food production: the "jury is still out" regarding genetically-modified foods. We have to evaluate all of these things relative to a starting point, and how can we do that if we throw out the past?

This is just a start. But we have to have a start.

Posted by: Bill H at June 21, 2020 08:19 AM (vMiSr)

Posted by: Dana Mathewson at June 21, 2020 01:29 PM (xbZgF)

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at June 22, 2020 09:30 AM (06POM)

Posted by: Ananya pandey at June 26, 2020 02:26 AM (/iiJ0)

Posted by: Ananya pandey at June 26, 2020 02:26 AM (/iiJ0)

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