New Orleans Removing Historical Statues
I read with interest, a story in the Herald Whig last week regarding the dismantling of a statue of General Robert E. Lee. It was in Lee Circle in New Orleans since 1884. The city council voted to remove the statue because it represented the promotion of white supremacy and slavery in the south.
The city removed two other statues recently for the same reason. One was of Confederate President Jefferson Davis and the other of Confederate General P.G.T Beauregard.
While I can see some people wanting to remove these statues, their removal is counter-productive. While white supremacy needs to be abolished like slavery was, removing these monuments and others depicting the dark history of our nation will only set the stage for future Americans to forget what happened in the South years ago.
Not everything that took place in the history of our country was good, but failing to recognize that it existed is worse. History will only repeat itself if we allow it to and removing “unfavorable” statues or plagues will only lead people to forget that history.