Tuesday, June 9, 2020

Monuments to Slavery etc.

I agree that symbols of slavery should not be celebrated but they and monuments to it are part of History; and History should never be forgotten. The worst of it should never "be swept under the carpet" or destroyed. They should be preserved in a museum setting of some kind. Even the major Nazi Concentration Camps; monuments to Evil, are kept to remember.
Otherwise most of the Stately Homes of the UK (Most now under the Umbrella of 'The National Trust') which were built from the 'Slave, Sugar and Cotton Triangle' should be torn down...Try that and see who cries "Foul"!
BTW, nobody has suggested that Caligula's obelisk should be removed from St. Peter's square in Rome....The most obvious centre piece in front of the Vatican....Look up his History!

Now, should we go to every statue and monument in the land and prepare a tally sheet of good and evil acts before we decide whether or not to destroy them? Let's start with Oliver Cromwell outside the UK Houses of Parliament...he was controversial enough right? How about all the pictures of Henry V111; or even Queen Victoria? She was inspiration to a lot of debatable acts throughout the world. William the Conqueror?...Tear down the Tower of London? Endless! "The evil that men do lives after them, the good is oft interred in their bones" (J.C...W.S.). But statues and monuments remind us of both..."So, let it be..."!
What is even more astounding is that many of these protesters cannot even get their history right in the first place; Baden Powell was NOT a supporter of Hitler's totalitarian policies in any way, in fact he publicly rejected them...he only had a wish to collaborate on outdoor education for the youth (before the war) and even then rather perfunctorily...Read!!!

THEGUARDIAN.COM
The slave trader’s figure loomed over Bristol for 125 years. Now a multiracial protest has achieved what past campaigns couldn’t, says historian and broadcaster David Olusoga

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