Just reading about, and am absolutely gobsmacked at the current intentional attempt to delete history of anyone involved in the Confederate side during the civil war going on in the US. They have now removed statues of Lee, Jackson and others and intend replacing with civil rights activists, renaming American bases such as Forts Hood, Bragg, Pickett and others to more "progresive" names. Maybe they should remove Washington from his place of reverence, after all he was a slave owner as well.
Maybe its a sign of my age that despises this sort of "forward thinking". I do have to state that I am not racist, a right wing radical or supporter of slavery just someone who believes we should honour those who went before us and feel history is just that, history.
OK, Grump over!
Derek
And of course if we do not remember the past, or worse still, actively try to obliterate those things which upset us, we end up repeating the mistakes.
Sadly, the confederacy has always been important to hose opposed to equality but in recent years has become more prominent as a rallying sign of the far right in the US so i can understand the armed forces wishing to disociate themselves. I think the difference between Washington and Confederate generals may be that by the time of the civil war slavery was widely perceived as unjust (to say the least) and thus those who fought to preserve it may not be such laudable figures.
Personally, I'd like to see more statues to eg Lister, Jenner, Fleming, Banting, Pasteur, Koch and many others who focused on saving lives and without whom life expectancy would be much lower and many of us wouln't be here.
Brian
This is an interesting debate, chaps, and no doubt has its place somewhere.
However, as it is straying into politics, that place is not this Forum.
I am now locking this thread.
Simon