Monuments and Memorials – Some brief reflections
Monuments and memorials are created in the present of their erection as an interpretation of the past. Damaging or destroying them is vandalism and is a crime, though a much less serious crime that assault or murder whether by a civilian or an officer of the law under cover of authority. Those memorials and monuments are reinterpreted by each generation as they rethink the meaning of our history. They may try to fix that interpretation but our judgement of the past evolves. The motivations of those who erected those monuments and memorials probably varied among the individuals who supported doing so. But it is a fact that they were erected during the imposition of Jim Crow, the revival of the KKK after WWI, and in response to the Civil Rights movement, especially after Brown v. Board. And the espoused motivation as expressed in speeches at the time of the dedication of those memorials often clearly stated they were monument to preservation of the “Anglo-Saxon race” against those of...
