Sharing a shortish opinion piece by Dan Gardner on his PastPresentFuture blog worth reading.
we should err on the side of keeping what exists and expressing ourselves through the creation of new memorials, if not to grant past generations the respect we hope future generations will accord us, then to allow memorials to accumulate over time, like the slow accumulations of silt that build a river delta — my favourite metaphor — and leave a record of the many generations that, collectively, made the place what it is.
You might also enjoy his post Statues Have Their Own Histories.
I don’t see how it’s a good thing to remove tributes to horrible people. How else will we remember what they did? History repeats itself, no doubt, and we need to be aware of it. Denying the Holocaust doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. The Civil War scorched earth happened. The statues of the perpetrators and the victims are important to keep the history dialog open to hopefully learn from our mistakes. All it takes is a plaque explaining the reason for the statue or whatever.
‘Statues have their own history’ is an important piece. I am forwarding to many locally, as we have one on the front lawn of city hall that has caused a ruckus. Needlessly, too. People need to look at when statues were put up, who organized the monies for same and the times in which they were put up. History in other words.