EdwardBaiamonte
Platinum Member
- Nov 23, 2011
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Should we get rid of the Monuments?
Well, the Nazis, for example, got rid of all the monuments that seemed to show support for Nazism and replaced them with monuments that showed contrition and guilt for what they had done, and to this day they are still building more monuments. Should Southerners feel the same guilt? Hell yes, for being slow see the evil in slavery; hell no for wanting freedom from the central govt. Let's not forget that 99% of southern soldiers were not slave owners but rather proud, poor, independent, heroic Scotts Irish types who wanted their freedom and way of life just as much as the Boston patriots did during the American Revolution.
Thus, most Republican Federal govts, and Republicans,conservatives, and libertarians in general would probably want to keep the monuments while central govt loving, welfare dispensing Democrats would probably want to take down the monuments down.
But why? Don't Americans love to go to Europe to learn history through seeing 1000's of monuments regardless of their relationship to today's sense of morality? Should the death camps be hidden from us too?
There is great benefit in people walking by a monument and wondering what history made people care to built it. Conservatives in particular need to know history so they will know what history should be conserved. Liberals don't care to know history and one must suspect their Talibanish approach to monuments is for the same Talibanish purpose. Some liberals are already calling for the destruction of Jefferson and Madison, and their Declaration and Constitution since they were written by mere slave holders even though it was those slave holders who instantly reversed 10,000 of history and set in motion the process by which slaves were freed a few years later.
So, there are arguments on both sides to be sure, but on balance the monuments should be kept especially since they do not support slavery but rather lost lives, bravery, patriotism, loyalty incredible determination, and principles from greater than the self, qualities that we all hope we would have had, had we had the misfortune to have been born in Caesar's Rome, Napoleon's France, Hitler's Germany, or Lincoln's south. Lincoln did not want to destroy the South after he defeated it. Remember how he famously asked the band to play Dixie, a song and symbol of the south that he had not heard in a long time.
Well, the Nazis, for example, got rid of all the monuments that seemed to show support for Nazism and replaced them with monuments that showed contrition and guilt for what they had done, and to this day they are still building more monuments. Should Southerners feel the same guilt? Hell yes, for being slow see the evil in slavery; hell no for wanting freedom from the central govt. Let's not forget that 99% of southern soldiers were not slave owners but rather proud, poor, independent, heroic Scotts Irish types who wanted their freedom and way of life just as much as the Boston patriots did during the American Revolution.
Thus, most Republican Federal govts, and Republicans,conservatives, and libertarians in general would probably want to keep the monuments while central govt loving, welfare dispensing Democrats would probably want to take down the monuments down.
But why? Don't Americans love to go to Europe to learn history through seeing 1000's of monuments regardless of their relationship to today's sense of morality? Should the death camps be hidden from us too?
There is great benefit in people walking by a monument and wondering what history made people care to built it. Conservatives in particular need to know history so they will know what history should be conserved. Liberals don't care to know history and one must suspect their Talibanish approach to monuments is for the same Talibanish purpose. Some liberals are already calling for the destruction of Jefferson and Madison, and their Declaration and Constitution since they were written by mere slave holders even though it was those slave holders who instantly reversed 10,000 of history and set in motion the process by which slaves were freed a few years later.
So, there are arguments on both sides to be sure, but on balance the monuments should be kept especially since they do not support slavery but rather lost lives, bravery, patriotism, loyalty incredible determination, and principles from greater than the self, qualities that we all hope we would have had, had we had the misfortune to have been born in Caesar's Rome, Napoleon's France, Hitler's Germany, or Lincoln's south. Lincoln did not want to destroy the South after he defeated it. Remember how he famously asked the band to play Dixie, a song and symbol of the south that he had not heard in a long time.
