Renaming Cities For Political Correctness

Did you know Germany has kept all their Holocaust memoirs and stuff? They have names embedded in the ground and students are taught everyday to remind them selves what their country did to 6 million Jews.

Yet the left wing nut jobs who constantly say "those who forget about our past repeat it" want to take down historical monuments.

Oh, don't forget about the right wing nut jobs who also say we should also forget about slavery because we're "over that."

Haha you idiots thought I was one sided.

The past is a reminder of what you've overcome and how far you have left to travel. Those that obsess over the past have no future.

If you take down statues of great generals like Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee because of their connection to slavery you could make a medium strong argument that you should take down statues of Washington, Jefferson et.al.

TO juxtapose a question, if we are geting rid of statues should we also get rid of words in our language that have equally hateful context attached to their origin? Then we should get rid of the words pork and beef since they were used after the Norman conquest of what is now England/Great Britan. These words were derived from French and we only use them, and by doing so pay hommage, to the slaughter of thousands of Englishmen who were only going to defend their homeland. See, this type of reductionist thinking can go on ad infinitum.

Slavery is bad, maybe nobody but 20-30 thousand people think that. We had a war against slavery where half of the country fought against and half in favor. Now I think there is some merit to leaving some statues up, Robert E. Lee was a complex figure and arguably the best general of his time, why he chose to lead the army of the South was a heavily nuanced point pertaining to states rights(while the overall war was fought for slavery and against its inevitable legislative demise i.e. the Missouri Compromise). How is this not a teachable moment, that life is nuanced, that history is written by the victor?

TO the OP's point renaming cities, well yes you could reduce everything to being hateful if you really tried. I'm sure you would get any city renamed, I just don't think it should be done. People need to learn to grow up, all this anti-fa behavior is purely childish.

https://apnews.com/10025226f5e54d96bda23524225b6897/Dems-risk-culture-w…

I hope liberals continue with their 1984 style thought control. Disgusting to see people try and erase history. The idiots advocating for the destruction of these monuments have no clue history. Ignorant fools.

Some other interesting names:

Apparently, New York was named for the Duke of York, who was a slave trader. The District of Columbia was named for Christopher Columbus, who was a pretty bad guy.

Hilarious that liberals will defend the statues of Lenin in New York and Seattle, but are ready to rename Yawkey Way in Boston because Tom Yawkey may have been racist.

Long post, but I was up until, like, 3 am last night thinking about this and talking with my friend about it.

My godless, anti-American, pot-smoking, capitalist-hating, left-wing liberal communist friend convinced me yesterday/last night that as a general rule the Confederate monuments should come down/no more new ones should be built (surprisingly, there are fairly recent monuments, e.g. 2006). However, I convinced him that each monument needs to be reviewed in its proper context before determining what to do with them and that the monuments shouldn't be destroyed like the Taliban does--this was heartening to see that maybe some on the left can be reasoned with (and people on the right (me) can also be reasoned with).

The monuments should be considered on a case-by-case basis, with some of the following a point of discussion:

1) I don't think any monuments should be destroyed if they don't have to be. What happened in Raleigh, NC last week was a despicable act of lawlessness but also an attack on history and art. Remove the monuments? Fine, but don't dishonor the history or the artist.

2) A large proportion of Confederate monuments are fairly benign--they are not ornate or large and say something to the effect of "In memory of the 17 Montgomery County citizens who died, 1861-1865". I would think that most people would not be outraged by these rather benign historical artifacts remaining in place (of course, some would be).

3) Some monuments are a little less benign but say something to the effect of "In memory of those who fought for the cause of liberty, the Confederate States of America." Those should probably be moved to a museum, to private lands, OR my preferred alternative is to place a plaque that explains the history of the monument, acknowledges that the government doesn't endorse the CSA, and that the monument is being left in place as an historic artifact and a teaching tool.

4) There are some truly gigantic monuments that would probably cost a municipality 7 or possibly multiple 7 figures to move or to dismantle. The municipalities (or states) need to decide if it's worth the cost and, if not, should (as I mentioned above) place a plaque explaining the monument and disavowing its message. But the monument can be used as an historical teaching tool (and public art).

5) Most monuments in front of courthouses should probably be removed from in front of the courthouse since they were largely put up to intimidate. A lot of them are just copies of one another and have little historic or artistic value.

6) A few of the monuments are truly artistic masterpieces. Communities should decide what to do with them, but again, an alternative to removing an artistic masterpiece might be an alternative plaque.

7) There are a few monuments that honor pretty bad guys, such as Nathan Bedford Forrest. Those should probably be removed entirely from the public sphere, cost allowing.

8) Finally, the context of a monument needs to be considered. For example, there is a Confederate monument in Arlington National Cemetery that was approved by the Taft administration in a move of national reconciliation. I think that context needs to be strongly considered. On the other hand, there are monuments put up during Jim Crow to make an intimidating statement to black people. That context should also be considered, along with cost to dismantle, artistic quality, and usefulness as a teaching tool.

I do not understand the historical arguments. This isn't an issue of slavery to me. Lee and Stonewall Jackson were traitors. They were enemies of the United States and they committed treason. They killed hundreds of thousands of Americans on both sides. Why should they be glorified? Why do we not treat them as a stain on our national history?

With regard to slavery, I had an interesting thought:

The average African American has about 25% white European blood. Therefore, they are the direct descendants of slaveholders. Most white people in America probably don't have direct descendants who owned slaves (direct as in a great^x grandparent). Therefore, if you think about it, African Americans are genetically more culpable for slavery than most white people...

Mind: Blown.

George Washington has statues and state names b/c he was the chief commander in the revolutionary war and 1st president of this country. He could've destroyed our democracy by allowing himself to be crowned king but instead rejected it and handed power over in a peaceful manner. Robert E Lee and his fellow traitors literally tried to rip our nation apart, we are comparing him to Washington? Smh. Everything has become political, if the left supports something, the right literally MUST be in opposition. Keep these dudes to history books and museums, there's no reason Robert E Lee should be elevated to a place of reverence. We support and revere Jefferson for his contributions to our nation not for his owning and raping of slaves. Why do we have statues revering Jefferson Davis? Then you look into it and many of these statues were put up in the 50s/ 60s as a direct message to minority groups - know your place. Like I said in the "has Trump gone too far" thread, there are 3 times more statues of these traitors in our capitol than statues of civil rights leaders. That's pretty sad if you ask me.