I don’t believe in erasing history

When is the madness going to stop?

Statues and monuments are coming down. Now, there are petitions to remove murals from Zimmerman Library at the University of New Mexico, and there was one circulating to remove symbols from the Kimo theater.

I don’t believe toppling statues is necessarily the right answer, and I don’t believe in erasing history. Yes, these works of art represent dark times in our nation’s past and the figures were less than honorable. We should not honor or venerate these figures, but acknowledge what they did, and why we must work toward being better than our ancestors, and treat our fellow man with dignity and compassion.

The events in New Mexico that the monuments commemorate happened 400 years ago and are not part of modern history. We should be better people by now and should have learned right from wrong by now. What happened is true and the truth needs to be taught, remembered and studied so that we don’t repeat it. It does not

need to be celebrated. Monuments commemorating history do not have to be celebrations, but should be viewed as lessons and tools to teach what is right and just. They must be seen through a critical eye and judged through the lens of history, and what we have overcome since then.

History is always changing and there are many sides to a story. So, take them down and put them in a place of learning, have docents on hand to tell the truth, but don’t erase them. We’ve done enough erasing of history through the years. Now is the time to tell the truth and bring it all out to be studied.

The worst atrocity of the modern era is starting to be forgotten or disbelieved. As Holocaust survivors die, it is up to us to remember and keep that from happening.

Thankfully, there are no monuments to Hilter and the Nazis, but we need to maintain and preserve the memorials so that those lives lost aren’t forgotten. We need to teach history and show that we can learn from it.

So far, we are not getting a passing grade.