No offense but with this logic Nazi statues would still be found in Germany. I don't don't think you can find one of those statues or flags publicly display anywhere in the world.
AFAIK there are still monuments remaining in Germany that recognize German soldiers who died in WWII, even though they were fighting for the cause of Nazism. I would think there's a reason why Jews insist that the concentration camps in Germany, Netherlands and Poland remain and not be demolished. I assume they're reminders of the horrors of what happened there, and they not be forgotten by history so that history is not repeated. I'm not Jewish, so I don't know specifically why they allow them to remain.
Don't misinterpret what I said in post #105. I'm not making the argument the ANY monument erected that glorifies and venerates the confederate treasonous cause to uphold the institution of slavery should not be removed. They should be removed. As someone already mentioned, Most of the memorials and monuments were mass produced garbage, put out around the turn of the century and sold to the Daughters of the Confederacy. Most of them were set up expressly to symbolically oppose desegregation. More importantly, they built the monuments after the white supremacy campaigns had seized power by force and taken the vote and rights from black people in the south. The monuments reflected that moment of white supremacist ascendency as much as they did the Confederate legacy. They should have never been put up.
It's known to history that countries that erase visible signs of civil war, recovered from conflicts quicker. By keeping these symbols alive, it would keep the divisions alive.
I merely stated that if a town ok'd some kind of monument with the names of the people of that town that died in fighting for the Confederacy in the Civil War as long as they have writing under those names stating something like "it's horribly sad that these men and women had to die needlessly, in vain fighting a misguided treasonous war for the confederate cause of protecting slavery". And...as long as they recognize the names of the black men and women who single handedly built the wealth, power and economy of the south along with such a monument. Something to this effect, that I wouldn't have a problem with it. In this day and age, people have a hard time distinguishing veneration and remembrance.
Treason is not always on the wrong side of history. It is, however, always serious. If you're willing to commit treason over some cause, then that must be a cause that you feel very strongly about, obviously. George Washington and his comrades committed treason against Britain because they felt very strongly about the cause of representative government. Robert E. Lee committed treason against the US and all 33 states because he felt very strongly about the cause of fucking owning other people. The former can be applauded: While we recognize that Washington et al. were flawed men, who owned slaves, who did many other wrong things, the thing they felt most strongly about was a good cause. The latter, however, should only be scorned: Lee was horrible slave owner. He had a bunch of slaves run away, when he caught them he ordered a constable to whip them. The constable refused to beat the woman slaves so Robert handled that task personally.
In the end, though, it doesn't matter much whether Lee personally whipped Mary Norris, or even if he merely stood by, extolling the constable to "lay it on well." It doesn't matter because every day of his life, from birth to the end of the Civil War, he lived in a world where he failed to grasp the most fundamental notions that should transcend culture and even law. He failed to see the basic human nature and rights of the people of color around him. If we're going to fix the big problems of racism, then we need to fix the attitudes behind racism. And removing the symbols is a big part of how to do that.
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