Quote from: Cnut237 on Today at 09:16:06 AM

This is quite true. Statues are complicated as well, in that they provide that direct link between the past and the present. Jefferson owing slaves in the time in which he lived is one thing. We might argue that were Jefferson alive today he would be highly unlikely to be in favour of slavery. What about a statue of Jefferson that is still standing today, as an object suitable for pride and veneration? Is a statue of Jefferson a monument to his achievements, or to the totality of his existence?

Let's assume for simplicity that Jefferson's only achievement was the Declaration of Independence, and that the only other thing we know about him is that he was a slave owner. The creation of a statue of the man would then be a celebration of the author of the Declaration - it would not be a celebration of him as a slave owner, there were plenty of slave owners, he was nothing special or statue-worthy in that regard. Then let's assume we erect a second statue, not depicting the human, but rather the Declaration itself. Presumably that second statue can stand for all time, or at least until we find the Declaration offensive. The difference is that the statue of the man has the potential to be construed as celebrating the man rather than his achievements. If it is a statue of the man alone, then should it to be removed because of his links to slavery, which we now find offensive? What about if the statue was of him holding the Declaration? Does that specification of context work to remove objections?

This is a good idea. I'd say the declaration was supposed to be about the people and not the authors so make a declaration monument and leave the slave owners out of it.

The statues aren't history and they aren't the work of the person in them. Statues are a celebration of a person. Even the concept of a statue is a holdover from absolute rulers. We can celebrate a person's accomplishments without celebrating that person by name. History is in the books. No one is saying we shouldn't teach history. We should teach all of their history and by then, no one will respect these monsters the way they do after learning whitewashed history.

GW is celebrated for being the first president. We can change the washington monument to the "presidential monument" making it a monument to the presidency itself and washington's name out of it.

This is not going to be easy and is just the beginning of a long period of undoing the whitewashing of history.