Our history is not being rewritten

To the editor:

I recognize that many Americans are currently deploring the removal of statues and memorials honoring various Confederate military and leadership figures. I also understand that there is frustration that this movement has extended to renaming buildings and other structures that honor not only these Confederates, but also others deemed as complicit in racial injustices in our history.

I do not condone the violent and illegal removal of these statues. I believe that ultimately these changes must be determined by committees, local governments, etc., with civic input and participation. Ultimately, the eliminations must be, and maybe are, inevitable.

How many of us have heard of and know of Alexander Graham Bell? Harriet Tubman? Neil Armstrong? Eleanor Roosevelt? Martin Luther King Jr.? Albert Einstein? Amelia Earhart? I believe that most of us, including our children, have and do. Now, how many of us have seen statues of them? I would wager most of us have not. (Recognize that if you have seen memorials to even some of them, you are more than likely in the vast minority of Americans.)

Yet we have heard of them. We know of them and the memorable roles they have played in our history.

Why? Because they are in our history books. Because we as Americans over time have seen fit to pass on their stories and legacies. It is not the statues honoring these individuals. It is what they have accomplished for us as a country and as a human race.

The bulk of the Confederate statues and memorials were erected during two distinct periods in our history.

The first, during the early 1900s, was when states were expanding on Jim Crow laws to subjugate black Americans. The second was from the mid 1950s through the mid 1960s, when the civil rights movement was pushing back against that segregation.

Historians mostly agree that those erecting those statues were sending a message intended to legitimatize white supremacy.

How many of us knew that? Had we supposed that those memorials had been there since right after the Civil War?

I have met many who thought that was the case.

However, as we learn of this timing and as we learn more (and accept more of the sometimes horrid faults and flaws and truths) about these individuals, how can we not stop and think about what we are honoring?

It is not that history is being rewritten. Rather, history is being revised, as it should be, as we learn and acknowledge more about the past. This revisionism is important for maintaining the accuracy of human knowledge. Historians accept that revising history in an objective way is beneficial in learning the actual truth.

After all, as David Moscrop of Maclean’s pointed out in a 2017 opinion piece, “History is not a static moment or series of moments; history is an ongoing project that connects past generations to the present, and it is built by human beings who make choices about what we admit to, what we ignore, what we celebrate, and what we condemn.”

To summarize:

1) History is not being erased — it is still there. Visit the library, go online or spend time at a museum. Read about it. Take the time to understand truly our history.

2) History is not being rewritten; rather it is being revised. There is a subtle but crucial difference. We are taking another look at information that heretofore we had refused to fully appreciate and accept. There is nothing wrong with that. It is what an honest nation does.

Much obliged,

Craig Ragland

Portland