Seen on Quora: this is the best possible answer to the "we have to preserve #history" argument for keeping #Confederate monuments, bases named after Confederate generals, etc.
"A cannon from a Civil War battle is history. A uniform worn by somebody at #Gettysburg is history. Jefferson Davis’ desk is history. Robert E. Lee’s sword is history. A monument made by the #KKK in the 1890s or 1950s isn’t history of the Civil War. It’s just a monument made by the KKK or similar racists, and is no more history than a statue I sculpt today of Pharaoh #Tutankhamen is 'history' of ancient #Egypt."
@Runyan50 By neo-Confederate "logic," why not?
@LouisIngenthron @Runyan50 I can see your point. Certainly I think it's important to remember that it happened—that a mob of traitors were so determined to hold on to power by violence that they were prepared to lynch a Vice President *of their own party* to do so.
I guess it comes down to how it's presented. Pictures should be preserved and widely shown, for sure. Preserving the gallows and noose itself, in place, would carry with it implied approval. Same for a replica. We don't have a static mount of a Japanese torpedo bomber at Pearl Harbor, I'm pretty sure! And I'm 100% sure there's no statue of Himmler at Auschwitz.
Tools and symbols of evil acts, when they're preserved at all, should be museum pieces IMO. Put them in context, rather than just sticking them out in the public square.
@medigoth Should we leave the hangman’s noose and scaffold intended for VP Pence outside the Capitol or even cast it in bronze, because it is “history”?