Hve you stopped to think about how you'd feel if your ancestors had been the one's murdered and some of those statues were erected with the sole purpose of reminding you of your place in society?

It's a complex issue with many sides and perspectives...but I don't get the nastiness from some that comes across like there is only one point of view. 

in the south and southwest for many years. One of my main hobbies is reading and understanding history, in particular civil war history.  I enjoy taking my family to visit civil war related sites and memorials which we have been to many.  We have great memories of the visits.  Recently I took my two daughters to Andersonville last month on a side trip after the girls attend the UF tennis camp.  What a great learning experience about the horrors of war. My oldest daughter was really moved.  Also site of the US POW museum.  We even saw Old Joe, the rebel foot soldier statue in Gainesville which is now gone thanks to a small few who are offended by our history, are several generations removed from that time and have never been affected by that time.  It's far better to see history than read about it.  It's a more effective way of learning.  Those historical markers and many other sites play an important role in our society and are now under threat and in process of removal.  Those teaching moments will be gone forever.  We are sterilizing our society and our history just like kids are raised these days. Let's learn about it and learn how to deal with it instead of just eliminating it and growing up in a bubble.  When will this madness stop?  What is next?

My other gripe is when will the excuses for failure stop?  Racism is just as bad, if not worse, in the north in the land of Union statues than in the south.  I was floored when I moved to Gainesville from Indiana how friendly and cordial whites and black were to each other.  Go read about how the KKK attained the most political power in Indiana than any other state in the union...not in the land of Confederate statues.  It's not statues or crumbling relics of the past, its people that are the problem. When will the excuses for the inability for those to graduate high school, not become a teenage parent, not become addicted to drugs, not gang bang, not be a deadbeat dad, etc etc stop?  We are now blaming hundred year old statues that most people probably don't even know exist?  Are you kidding me? It's ridiculous.  Thus, my point in my previous post is not pick and choose, let's do everything we can to eliminate every single reminder and vestige of slavery, racism, etc so we can no longer have any excuses for our failures as a society.  Once these so called "oppressive" relics of our past are eliminated and all excuses therein, maybe then, and only then we will look in the mirror and realize we need to step up and have the desire to be accountable for ourselves...which we should have been doing all along.