This was on a Classic Cartoons feature on Netflix and I found it really interesting that it was prefaced before the cartoons in the feature. It got me to think about this whole monuments/statue issue and find it is very much related.

A monument is a statue, building, or other structure erected to commemorate a famous or notable person or event. What adjective you use to describe it is solely your interpretation and deciding to tear down monuments for reasons based on our sensibilities today defeats the purpose of that monument no matter how you look at it.

The strength of our Nation was built on the taking advantage of others. In fact every country has done this and it is practiced to this day in the business world. It’s not right but it has happened and continues to happen. At the end of the day it’s not about what statue we allow to remain up but rather how we educate our society and our children as to what is considered right and acceptable. And let’s not forget that what we deem today as right and acceptable may just be the opposite decades from now. We tend to forget our sensibilities of right and wrong are driven by the society we live in so condemning what we have done in our past based on our sensibilities today is flawed. We have to understand why it was done, how it impacted the society then and what we can learn from that going forward in formulating what we consider an acceptable society today.