No History - No Culture
“The republic will not erase any trace, or any name, from its history ... it will not take down any statue. We should look at all of our history together with a goal of truth instead of denying who we are”.
Emmanuel Macron, President, Republic of France
On the Silk Road, a historic caravan route linking the markets of China with those of the Western world, there were two ancient, giant Buddha statues in the Bamiyan valley, an Afghanistan province. Early in 2001, the Taliban's supreme leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, decreed that they were un-Islamic and ordered they be destroyed. They were blown up with dynamite. An ancient site of several Buddhist Monasteries that was a center of religion, philosophy, and art was irretrievably lost.
Healthy societies do not destroy their own history, and yet look what is happening in this nation as the protest surrounding the murder of George Floyd have morphed into a demand that we begin a national historical cleansing that will end “systemic racism”. Everyday there are reports of Confederate statutes defaced and toppled. As if those acts will change, or forever ameliorate the problem. Not content with erasing the history of the Confederate States of America, these anarchists are hell bent on remaking the country, they have gone after statues of Christopher Columbus and Matthias Baldwin. Who?
Matthias Baldwin’s company made locomotives, but he refused to sell them in slave states. He was an outspoken abolitionist and donated money for the education of black children in Philadelphia. Capitalist yes, but hardly a racist whose statue warrants destruction. The ignorance of the protestors is on full display when they attack Baldwin and creates doubt that these destructive acts have anything to do with “systemic racism”.
If we’re going to start erasing our history, then are we going to erase the memory for Franklin D. Roosevelt as well? It’s a serious question. His presidency was marked by serious human rights abuses inflicted upon Japanese Americans. Does he get a pass from the “liberal cancel culture” movement? Is his legacy stained and to be erased with the removal of his monument in DC by these radical loons?
Speaker Pelosi has stated that the 11 Confederate figures in Statutory Hall in the Capital building need to be removed. Has anybody told her that 9 of the 11 are Democrats? Does the Speaker also know the Russell Senate Office Building is named after one of the greatest segregationists in history, Senator Richard Russell of Alabama? Maybe she also didn’t know that in 1948, her father, the Mayor of Baltimore Thomas D'Alesandro, oversaw the dedication of a monument to Confederate generals Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee. His remarks at the time included the following:
“Today with our nation beset by subversive groups and propaganda which seeks to destroy our national unity, we can look for inspiration to the lives of Lee and Jackson to remind us to be resolute and determined in preserving our sacred institutions … remain steadfast in our determination to preserve freedom, not only for ourselves, but for other liberty-loving nations who are striving to preserve their national unity as free nations.”
Even that noted Native American activist Senator Elizabeth Warren proposed one of the more bizarre pieces of legislation seen. In additions to renaming every military base that had a connection to the Confederacy, she called for the Army to tear down a monument to Confederate soldiers buried in Virginia’s Arlington National Cemetery, formerly the estate of Robert E. Lee. Union and Confederate soldiers were laid to rest there as a sign of reconciliation. That looney idea is very close to grave desecration.
On CNN, one of their contributors opined that the Jefferson Memorial and Washington Monument need to be repurposed and renamed as those two founders owned slaves. Never mind that they were instrumental in creating a free, democratic republic, that has self-corrected its faults through blood shed in war and legislative rectifications to end racial injustice. That 230 year plus history is essential to understanding and appreciating the growth of our unique American culture.
The liberal leftist culture cancelers evidently delight in remaking and denying the truth of how this nation was crafted and flourished. The culture we have is the product of our history. How many lives are improved when history is obscured? We learn from history, the good, the bad and the ugly. We learn the truth and work not to repeat the bad and the ugly. President Macron of France nailed it.