Rather than removing statues, we should tell the whole story | OPINION

Invitee Commentary: On Rizzo, Columbus, and the Confederacy

As the statues autumn, a Princeton grad and local resident warns that honestly confronting our past helps us reckon with the present

Jul. 01, 2020

One of the worst aspects of contemporary American politics is the trend among citizens and politicians akin to be unable to hold more than a single viewpoint about a particular issue in their heads at the aforementioned time. On every issue, we feel the demand to come downward fully on either side A or side B, when in reality A and B each incorporate a great deal of truth.

This tendency to wednesday ourselves to i true side of an incredibly circuitous issue—thereby cutting ourselves off from the value and truth of the other sides—has grown wildly apparent when information technology comes to the question of tearing down statues of historical figures.

The problem is that the question of statues is not an A or B upshot. If we expect at the recent disputes over tearing down statues close to home here in Philly and throughout the rest of the nation, nosotros find some removals that are well-deserved and overdue and others that seem wrongheaded and even dangerous. Confederate statues? Rip 'em down. Frank Rizzo? Keep him up, but place him side by side to Cecil B. Moore. Christopher Columbus? Don't touch him, but tell the whole story.

Permit me explain.

We must exist very conscientious when we remove public historical markers. A people who cannot honestly confront their past cannot honestly reckon with their present. The belatedly historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. rightly noted in his 1998 volume, The Disuniting of America: Reflections on a Mutlicultural Guild , that "history is to the nation…every bit retention is to the individual. As an individual deprived of retentiveness becomes disoriented and lost, not knowing where he has been or where he is going, then a nation denied a formulation of its past will be disabled in dealing with its present and its futurity."

If we erase every moral failure of America from our public centre, we will soon lose a conception of America (if we oasis't already). That is unsafe. We need historical, philosophical, and upstanding moorings to inform and underpin our political debates. Without those moorings America can become unhinged, lost, frustrated, and violent.

Note: America—i.e., the United states of America . The Confederacy was both a frontal assault on human nobility (thank you to its embrace of chattel slavery) and to the U.s.a. of America. The Confederate South sought to secede from the Union. Abe Lincoln and the multiracial Union Army forcefully disallowed Southerners from successfully doing so. The Confederates were traitors. They don't deserve statues—not because of their immorality, but considering they sought to blow upwards our organization of government and our nation.

That said, vehement downwards the statues of Confederate generals should be the exception, not the dominion. Not honoring those who tried to break usa apart is a distinct matter from wiping away those who have shaped who we are, fifty-fifty if they were far from saints. Enter Frank Rizzo.

Don't get me incorrect, I'grand no lover of Frank Rizzo. I recently read University of Southern Alabama historian Timothy J. Lombardo's insightful book, Blue-Collar Conservatism: Frank Rizzo'southward Philadelphia and Populist Politics . As Lombardo writes, Rizzo "maintained his base of operations of back up by opposing public housing, school desegregation, affirmative action, and other liberal programs that he and his supporters deemed unearned advantages for nonwhites." He also encouraged and personified the sort of police brutality which so many are rightfully pushing dorsum on right now. That said, Lombardo notes that "Frank Rizzo was loved equally much as he was hated."

If we erase every moral failure of America from our public centre, we will soon lose a conception of America (if we oasis't already). That is dangerous. We need historical, philosophical, and ethical moorings to inform and underpin our political debates. Without those moorings America tin get unhinged, lost, frustrated, and vehement.

The man was loved, and is still loved, past big swaths of the city's population, merely he was besides chock full of racial prejudice (" Vote white "? C'mon). But is papering over the man, his impact, and his legacy the manner to get about this? No. We should erect statues of Cecil B. Moore , Robert Purvis , and Absalom Jones to face the Rizzo statue. Rizzo is a key part of who we are, but and so too are Moore, et al.

And certain, Rizzo was the champion of many "white ethnics," but he doesn't define them. We should highlight other "white ethnics" who haven't fallen into the trap of racial prejudice and take instead joined with African Americans—i.due east., their young man Philadelphians and boyfriend Americans—in the fight to realize the promise of this City of Brotherly Dear and this nation of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

I'm talking about people like Anna McGarry , an Irish widow from North Philly who played a monumental role in fostering healthier relations between white and black Philadelphians and in advancing Blacks' labor, civil, and human rights in the mid-20 th century by serving equally a member of the city'southward Commission on Man Relations and the Philadelphia Catholic Interracial Council.

Let'due south put the key figures of the city's past in dialogue with i another so that we may do the same. Let'southward have events at the feet of these statues, hold public meetings, have conferences, and invite historians. Let'south lay the groundwork for robust, peaceful, constructive conversations that let Philadelphians to grapple with the pains of their by (and thus, the challenges of their present).

And what about Christopher Columbus? Mayor Kenney is request the city'south Art Commission to remove the statue from Marconi Plaza (after a perfunctory menstruum of virtual public comment) "in light of ongoing public rubber concerns almost the presence of armed individuals at Marconi Plaza."

That'south absurd. If Kenney was concerned well-nigh public safety, he would ensure that the Urban center's constabulary officers actually enforce the constabulary (and his curfew orders) confronting bat-wielding and wrench-gripping white residents. Kenney isn't concerned about public safety; he'due south scared.

Did Christopher Columbus abuse, murder, and enslave indigenous peoples? Yep. Did he play a pivotal part in the history of this nation and the world? Also yep.

Since the whole Columbus statue saga is such a sticky situation, why don't we double down on the fact that our city is in fact the cradle of an imperfect democracy? Why don't nosotros double down on the fact that our city teems with rich history? Why don't we make Marconi Plaza and its surrounding area a rich reminder of the pains and hope we can find when peeling dorsum the folds of American history?

 Let'south put the fundamental figures of the metropolis's past in dialogue with one some other so that we may do the aforementioned. Permit'southward take events at the feet of these statues, hold public meetings, take conferences, and invite historians. Permit's lay the groundwork for robust, peaceful, constructive conversations that allow Philadelphians to grapple with the pains of their past (and thus, the challenges of their present).

Allow'due south place statues of indigenous people next to Columbus and couple them with a plaque explaining the pain and plunder which his conquest of their land wrought. Nearby, let's paint a mural that shows all the joy, progress, destruction, and question marks to which that pain and plunder have given rise. The mural should depict Columbus, Native Americans, Revolutionary State of war-era colonists, slaves, Marriage soldiers, manufacturing plant workers, "fat cats," civil rights activists, Black Lives Matter protesters, cops, and anybody in between.

In the city where information technology all began, let'south not be agape to tell the whole story. Let's reckon with the pain, only allow's not fail the hope. We are non an eternally damned nation. We are an imperfect yet boggling nation composed of imperfect nonetheless extraordinary people. We owe it to ourselves to be real with ourselves. Allow's not be afraid to tell our story, and to do so publicly.

Telling that story will crave skillful-faith arguments like the ones I've put along above. Perhaps you remember I'1000 right, maybe you retrieve I'grand wrong, or maybe you're somewhere in between. Just if you've gotten to the cease of this article, please realize that by bringing up diverse aspects of our past, I'yard encouraging you to reckon with that by and how information technology relates to our present. In the cease, such reckoning is precisely the point of these statues and historical markers. They serve a borough function, and yes, they even challenge u.s. to recall complexly about complex issues—another cardinal requirement of good citizenship.

So permit'south resist the mob—of all political persuasions and historical convictions—and let'due south take a step back and call up through some of these deeper questions calmly, clearly, and together. Since public markers of our past tend to aid us do precisely that, we should be wary of tearing them down.

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Thomas Koenig is a contempo graduate of Princeton University from Oreland, PA.

The Christopher Columbus Statue in Marconi Plaza

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Source: https://thephiladelphiacitizen.org/a-local-resident-urges-that-honestly-confronting-our-past-helps-us-reckon-with-the-present/

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