Some monuments are designed to memorialize history, true. But other monuments -- most? -- are meant to honor the person or people depicted. We literally put them on pedestals, to be looked up to.
In the Soviet bloc, people took down statues of Lenin and Stalin, as fast as they could. Were they dishonoring or eradicating history? No. In the main, they cared more about history than others. It's just that they did not believe that Lenin and Stalin deserved places of honor.
A reader made a point to me: There are no monuments to Hitler. Yet people manage to learn about the Third Reich, World War II, and the Holocaust.
Whether to keep or ditch a monument should be up to local people, I think -- and decisions should be made in orderly, democratic fashion. In liberal-democratic societies, we value process. Process is the golden good. Otherwise, brute strength rules.
In 2017, I wrote a piece about Confederate monuments, etc., so that I would never have to address the general issue again. I poured into this baby pretty much everything I believe on the subject. For those interested, it's here: nationalreview.com/2017/09/seeing…
