On Monuments and Historical Greatness

This is going to be a short epilogue to my previous post about Charlottesville. . .

There's been a lot of discussion since Saturday about what to do with the Confederate monuments.  One of the counterexamples people who want the monuments to stay is that George Washington and several other Founders owned slaves, so why should the Confederate statues be torn down and not the Washington Monument, etc? That seems like a good argument, but falls apart under closer scrutiny.

Almost all revered historical figures have something extremely shameful on their records.  Washington owned slaves, and by some accounts he treated them pretty harshly.  FDR ordered the military to intern Japanese-American citizens and threw Poland under the bus to placate Stalin.  Gandhi admired Hitler and was a womanizer.  Woodrow Wilson was a huge racist.  Even above-average figures like LBJ and Mother Teresa had some pretty big skeletons in their closets.

Here's the important thing to remember, though.  A lot of those revered figures are remembered for something they did on the positive side of the ledger.  Something they did which benefited their country, their people, or all of mankind.  The members of the Confederacy immortalized by statues aren't.  Quick quiz.  Name something noteworthy that Jefferson Davis and John Calhoun did - besides being important Confederate figures.  Something else they did that makes them stand out.  Same thing with General Lee.  Go ahead, I'll wait.

Tick tock, tick tock. . .

Okay, time's up.  Did you think of anything? I'm betting you didn't, unless you're well-informed on the history of the South.  And that's the important difference.  Lee, Calhoun, Davis, and many others are all remembered entirely for their association with the Confederacy.  Their reputations, the only notable thing they did in their lives, was their association with a secessionist movement dedicated to maintaining slavery.

George Washington is remembered for more than owning slaves.  George Washington did more than own slaves.  The same is true for most other revered historical figures.  They are more than their shameful deeds.  And that is what makes them different from Lee, Davis, and Calhoun. The Confederates are not; whatever else they did in their lives, their notable contribution to history is fighting to preserve a slave state.  Their legacy is not one worth honoring.