History doesn’t change. Only how we acknowledge it.

Here’s what’s happening behind the headlines.

The Buddha of Bamiyan statues in Afghanistan’s Hindu region stood 165 feet tall. But the Taliban didn’t want these reminders of Hindu history. So they blew them up.

It happened before 9/11. The world was outraged. These statues had stood for nearly two-thousand years. It was simply wrong to destroy reminders of Afghanistan’s history.

So what does this say about some American cities? It’s become fashionable to remove Civil War statues that are reminders of our nation’s past. For example, statues were torn-down in New Orleans; St. Louis; Orlando; and Frederick, Maryland.

Artifacts from our past face similar threats in Annapolis, Maryland and Charlottesville, Virginia.

Removal of historical statues is shortsighted. Clearly, there have been ugly chapters in American history. But ripping down statues and similar imagery doesn’t alter that history. Instead they should serve as important reminders of our past. To help guide our behavior going forward.

The Soviets thought they could alter history by airbrushing photos. But it was a fraudulent attempt to pretend people and events never existed.

Let’s not repeat that behavior. We’re better than that.

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