The recent and violent disagreements over what should be done with Confederate statues and monuments has hit Middle America: Columbus, Ohio. The violence was perpetrated in Camp Chase Cemetery. on the city’s West Side, where vandals beheaded the statue of a Confederate soldier and made off with it, leaving behind the headless statue and its hat. This, or course, is nothing compared to the violent altercation that plagued Charlottesville, and the violent talk that erupts whenever the subject of Confederate monuments and statues comes up.
There are at least three possible positions to take on the issue. The first is the one white supremacists and their sympathizers take: that people of color are a threat to Caucasians, that Caucasians are superior to everyone else and that the key figures of the Confederacy are symbols of this supposed supremacy.
The second position is that these statues and monuments are part of history, and the fact that we don’t agree with the ideology of those depicted doesn’t change historical fact. In other words, it’s wrong to do revisionist history and, in effect, pretend that these people, who held positions that we now recognize are wrong, did not have a significant impact on the history of the United States. Those who hold this position don’t think the statues should be dismantled, but for a different reason: This is history, and you can’t dismantle history.
The third position holds that it is morally wrong to maintain the statues of those who held racist views, people like Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis. Those holding this position might say that these are not people we want to emulate, so why should we continue to honor them with statues?
For many, the offense is deeper and more personal. They are the descendants of slaves. They may have lived under Jim Crow, endured discrimination in housing, lived through school busing that sometimes led to violence. To see those who perpetrated torment honored? I can’t begin to imagine the wrenching emotions these monuments and statues evoke for those who suffered and continue to suffer racial discrimination.
I think both those who think we can’t change history by dismantling a statue, and those who find those statues so painful, are both correct. This is where context becomes important. Put these statues and monuments in museums, within an historical context. Talk and write about the moral evil of slavery and the role Confederates had in supporting it. Tell their whole story: that they supported slavery, why some people at some point thought they deserved a monument, and how we as a nation came to realize that they do not.
Camp Chase also has an historical and cultural context. Camp Chase was a camp the Union operated to hold Confederate prisoners of war. The men buried there were Confederate soldiers.
Showing respect for Camp Chase doesn’t fall into the same category as respecting the monuments of past Confederate leaders. Burial of the dead is a mark of human culture. Burial honors them not for being Confederates, but for being human beings. To respect a Confederate cemetery is not to say that we agree with Confederate ideology. To respect a Confederate cemetery is, in fact, to take a stand against a Confederate ideology that said some are less human than others.
To maintain and respect a Confederate cemetery is to say that, however morally repugnant their actions may have been, these were human beings.
As are we.
How do I live thee? 