This past week, the town where Joseph Stalin was born in the modern day country of Georgia, tore down the statue built in his honor. The people no longer wanted to celebrate a history of a man so violent and evil.
However, some people could ask, “Didn’t Stalin do some important and even great things?” Of course. In many ways, Stalin can be thanked for stopping Hitler and the Nazi regime. If the Soviet Union had not been involved in the war, it would have been a much tougher victory for the Allies. However, this doesn’t negate what the man stood for and what he did-killing literally millions of his own people and completely destroying the rights and freedoms of the citizens of the nation. The people of Georgia realized that what Stalin represented to most of the people far outweighed any positive impact he may have had in Russian or World History.
I think there is a comparable situation in the South in the United States with the honoring of the Confederacy. While I in no way would try to put the actions of the Confederacy on the level of evil as Stalin, the Confederacy still represents a dark and oppressive time in our history that should not be a source of celebration.
When I was a History teacher in South Carolina, I took my students down to a special “youth in government” conference at the state capitol. While looking at the monuments around the state house, I saw a seeming contradiction and irony. One of the monuments was dedicated to the struggle of African Americans. However, many more were monuments celebrating the Confederacy and the pro-segregationist leaders of the State. It struck me as odd that you could celebrate both? Honestly, I don’t think you can. The Confederacy still represents this oppression that we are trying to overcome. I am sure that seeing all the Confederate celebration and memorial was not seen as harmless and benign to the African-American students whose ancestors were held for centuries in the cruel practice of slavery.
Do we celebrate all of our history just because it is ours, regardless of the ethics and justice of the events? Many still do, but I think that it is foolish and sets a bad precedent and a confused message to the new generation coming up. We need to celebrate the good, but also learn from the wrong and injustice-not blindly celebrate it. Perhaps, states like South Carolina could learn from the people of Georgia and start putting away some of their monuments to people and events whose memory continue to cause division, anger, and a confused message.
Essence Restored 