Confederate Monuments Opinion Blog

In the past year, there have been many differences of opinions throughout the south regarding the topic of whether to remove Confederate monuments or not. While some cities, like Charlottesville, VA, chose to leave these statues standing, others, like New Orleans, LA, voted to remove them. The issue of conserving or obliterating these offending memorials has validity on both ends. Those in support of removing them want to erase the message that they stand for and what they represent in our history as well as our future, while those opposed to removing them believe that we cannot erase our history and these monuments should stand as a teachable moment for future generations. 
I see solid validity on both sides of the argument, and at first I sided with Mayor Signer from Charlottesville, who voted to keep the statues standing. He spoke about how we must "neither forget the past nor accept its grasp on our present and future," and how we cannot erase the history of our country, but should rather learn from it and change because of it. I agree that erasing out history is not a solution to the problems of our past and think that it is important to embrace our history, the good and the bad, our successes and our mistakes. Signer spoke about how this approach with allow for us to "create a living history that at once rebukes and transcends the past," showing that leaving the statues standing is not honoring or supporting who they were or what they stood for, but stand as an important message to never forget what happened and to never let it happen again. 
After reading Mayor Landrieu of New Orleans' speech, however, I came to realize that despite the importance of preserving history, we must also be proactive in righting the wrongs of the past and confronting our history of racism as opposed to just letting it be. His speech made me side with those who want to remove Confederate monuments from their cities, and spurred a deeper thinking of what these monuments represent. Opposers to the removal of the statues stressed the importance of not erasing our history and of accepting both the good and bad of our past, however, as Landrieu eloquently stated, "There is a difference between remembrance of history and reverence of it." In agreement with Landrieu, I believe that history cannot be changed or moved like a statue, and by taking down these statues, we are not "erasing" our history, but are rather dealing with it. Taking down the statues does not mean that we are removing that part of our history from our minds, but we are rather showing how strongly we condemn what they stand for. These statues are not just "innocent remembrances of a benign history," but were created for the sole purpose of celebrating the Confederacy and ignoring the racism, violence, terror, and death that was the bi-product of it. These statues that have been standing for so long have sent such a negative message, as if to show that these people are being honored and respected, which is something that can never happen. How can we tell the future generations that we are changing from our past ways and are bettering our society while people who stand for everything wrong are still being placed on a pedestal and memorialized in public? To truly choose a better future, right the wrongs of the past, we have to acknowledge the terrible acts of these people and take steps to show that we do not condone what they did or stood for. This is why I believe that these statues should be removed once and for all.