ronburgundy
Contributor
There is a pervasive argument that is falsely equating removal of these Confederate statues to "whitewashing history".
That's bullshit. The statues were not created nor do they in any way accurately clarify and show any important historical information.
They were created to and only continue to honor, glorify, and thus promote the actions of the people they are modeled after.
There was and is nothing honorable about their actions. The Confederate soldiers were at the very best ignorant dupes of their state governments controlled by slave owners who conned them into fighting against their nation so the slave owners could defend slavery against the tide of moral progress. The Confederate leaders were worse than this.
These statues were created as propaganda to promote these men and mostly their cause as heroic and just. Most of the created a half century after the Civil War as part of the anti-equality culture in which the KKK arose and thrived. While it is important to understand that attitude and to recognize that many in the US (most of those fighting to keep these statues and the Confed flag) still hold these "good old days" attitude, the government should not be helping them do so.
Note this applies to Confederate statues, not to statues of founding fathers. The huge difference is that their statues were not created to glorify a war to protect slavery, which is the sole thing the Confederate statues represent.
Despite the US Revolution and the resulting Constitution, failing at the time to enhance liberty for slaves or women, the ideas that were central to the war and to the Constitution were laudable and moral rather than immoral. And those ideas and the successful fight for them were a foundation that helped pave the way to their progress and application in ways that have improved the lives and liberty of all US residents. As creators of the US, they still represent what the US was and still should be aspiring to relative to undemocratic dictatorships from which it sought to separate. Whereas Confederate statues represent the opposite, a desire to fight against the US and those very principles whose innate appeal began spread to all aspects of society to which they were relevant.
In sum, one must oversimplify and ignore much of reality to view a Jefferson statue as a shrine to a culture of slavery and values we no long should hold, whereas one must ignore most of reality not to recognize that is inherently what the Confederate statues are and originally were designed to be.
That's bullshit. The statues were not created nor do they in any way accurately clarify and show any important historical information.
They were created to and only continue to honor, glorify, and thus promote the actions of the people they are modeled after.
There was and is nothing honorable about their actions. The Confederate soldiers were at the very best ignorant dupes of their state governments controlled by slave owners who conned them into fighting against their nation so the slave owners could defend slavery against the tide of moral progress. The Confederate leaders were worse than this.
These statues were created as propaganda to promote these men and mostly their cause as heroic and just. Most of the created a half century after the Civil War as part of the anti-equality culture in which the KKK arose and thrived. While it is important to understand that attitude and to recognize that many in the US (most of those fighting to keep these statues and the Confed flag) still hold these "good old days" attitude, the government should not be helping them do so.
Note this applies to Confederate statues, not to statues of founding fathers. The huge difference is that their statues were not created to glorify a war to protect slavery, which is the sole thing the Confederate statues represent.
Despite the US Revolution and the resulting Constitution, failing at the time to enhance liberty for slaves or women, the ideas that were central to the war and to the Constitution were laudable and moral rather than immoral. And those ideas and the successful fight for them were a foundation that helped pave the way to their progress and application in ways that have improved the lives and liberty of all US residents. As creators of the US, they still represent what the US was and still should be aspiring to relative to undemocratic dictatorships from which it sought to separate. Whereas Confederate statues represent the opposite, a desire to fight against the US and those very principles whose innate appeal began spread to all aspects of society to which they were relevant.
In sum, one must oversimplify and ignore much of reality to view a Jefferson statue as a shrine to a culture of slavery and values we no long should hold, whereas one must ignore most of reality not to recognize that is inherently what the Confederate statues are and originally were designed to be.
