Yesterday I was reading an article about a pastor in Chicago who wants a George Washington monument taken down because he was a slave owner, wanted some streets renamed, etc...I think removing Washington statue might be crossing some kind of "line" but something the pastor said struck a chord with me -- he said:
Dukes said he’s not trying to erase history. He said black people should be able to decide who is and is not honored in their communities.
“I think we should be able to identify and decide who we declare heroes in or communities, because we have to tell the stories to our children of who these persons are,” he said.
He said parks, statues, or other monuments honoring Presidents Washington and Jackson might be appropriate elsewhere, but not in black neighborhoods.
“In an African-American community, it’s a slap in the face and it’s a disgrace for them to honor someone who was a slave owner.
And that's what I completely stand behind. The people who live in a city, town, neighborhood, etc...should have the right to display the monuments and statues that mean something to them. Obviously a Taney and Robert E. Lee statue that was erected almost 100 years ago when the city was still lead by racist whites who were sympathetic to the southern Lost Cause isn't going to go over well today in a predominately black city, such as Baltimore. So they should be removed. And they were. And I commend Mayor Pugh for doing this without fanfare, without large protests, without any conflict. There was potential for the city to devolve into the chaos that happened in Charlottesville, and by removing them in the middle of the night, all that was avoided.
And taking these statues down doesn't "erase history". History cannot be erased.
I never had friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?
