**************************************

It’s true, removing statues or changing building names doesn’t undo history.

It does, however, make a statement about who we wish to honor or celebrate.

You may notice there are no statues of Adolf in Germany.

If we really want to view images of people who represent abhorrent causes (like genocide or wanting to uphold slavery), we have Google. One could even print them out, frame them, and hang them on a wall if one wanted to admire them daily. (May it never be.) Certainly we must never “erase” them from history, because we need to see what kinds of sickness we are capable of in order to keep it from being repeated.

For me personally, the removal of statues of people who fought to keep slaves gives me hope that that sort of blind hatred and ignorance are dying more and more with each passing generation. Let’s take their names off buildings as well. No one names a childcare center after Genghis Kahn or a cancer ward for Charles Manson.

Now, is there a point where it becomes ludicrous?

Probably. Because, the raw truth is, there are no human saints—living or dead. If we look close enough, if we turn over every rock, there isn’t one of us who hasn’t at one time or another said or done something that reveals moral contradiction.

Do we, for instance, want to take down all statues of George Washington because he was a slave owner? Maybe. Maybe not. Let’s talk about it. Let’s tell as much of the truth as we know about what was good and bad about the man. As we should with J.F.K., Gandhi, George W. Bush, Nixon, Bill Clinton, and Martin Luther King. Tell the unvarnished truth about these imperfect men. Let’s do the same with women who occupy a place in history. People who do great good are also capable of doing great harm, being duplicitous, or simply being hopelessly “of their time.”

All our heroes are, or were, mere human beings. Flawed. Limited. Shaped by the time and place of their birth and upbringing.

If my worst moments were being shown on the Cosmic Jumbotron to the whole world—I’d be in hiding.

We sometimes exhibit prejudice, subtly or not so subtly.

Outstanding people have done awful things. Left, right, center. Known. Unknown.

So, where that line is, I don’t know.

But I don’t ever need to stand in the shadow of a statue of a person that represents an evil cause.

Let them live in Wikipedia, not in town square.

Peace, brothers and sisters.