“When they burn books, they will also ultimately burn people”
Heinrich Heine, German Jewish Poet
Prophetically, Heinrich Heine in 1821 predicted that those people who burn books ultimately burn people. Sadly, he anticipated both the Nazi book burning and the use of incinerators to dispose of their millions of holocaust victims.
I want to express emphatically my concern that we have gone way beyond the original focus on removing statues of Confederate generals and politicians from public places. I fully empathize with the pain of African Americans who for decades have borne witness to the advocates of slavery.
My worry is that statues of other notable Americans are now at risk. Specifically, in recent days, protestors have removed or disfigured sculptures honoring Theodore Roosevelt, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Christopher Columbus, Winston Churchill, etc. While all of the later violate our current belief system on race, they made enormous contributions to America and civilization. We need to remember that America has a racist legacy; that is, fourteen out of eighteen of our presidents from 1789-1876 owned slaves. Of our founding fathers, only John Adams did not own a slave.
Instead of lawless removal of sculptures of historical figures whose racial record fails to meet our current standards, we need to honestly assess their pros and cons. If after review, we feel that these persons should not be honored then we can take appropriate action. Otherwise we will fall into the trap that the Soviet Union faced when I visited that country in 1969. Because of Stalin and his subsequent dismissal, when I visited museums commemorating the Red Revolution of 1917, the only person left was Vladimir Lenin. The rest had become persona non grata! Can you imagine studying the American Revolution, and only learning about John Adams? When you study the authors of the American Constitution, we will have to rewrite the story and say “John Adams climbed Mount Rushmore and got the constitution from God!”
Instead of just saying that America was founded with original sin, we should candidly admit that the history of civilizations is that throughout the globe strong tribes have conquered weaker tribes and then treated their subjugated rivals miserably. Are the critics of America willing to leave the United States and give the country back to Native Americans? Are we willing to give back 1 million square miles to Mexico that we grabbed as a consequence of the Mexican war? Is Mexico willing to give back their country to the Aztecs and Mayans? Are we willing to give back Alaska to the Eskimos or Hawaii to the natives of those islands? Sadly, while many of our protests are legitimate response to injustice, I have seen no appeal to improve the life of Native Americans, stuck in impoverished circumstances on reservations.
Frankly, I am appalled that the news media and our leading politicians have not heaped scorned on protestors who have burned and looted stores or defended the memory of great Americans. The failure to appreciate the great figures of our history will ultimately destroy any sense of patriotism. There is nothing wrong with love of country as long as it does not lead to xenophobic behavior. For our country to continue we all need to be part of something bigger than ourselves. If each of us thinks that only we have the right to “write our history” we will all ultimately become illiterates.
Ultimately, if we do not control the excesses of the Streets we will suffer the blood baths of France after the French Revolution, Russia after the Russian Revolution, Germany under the Nazis and the Red Guard of China. A few years ago, we decried Muslim extremists destroying historical remnants. Are we not similarly guilty today?
In conclusion, along with almost everyone I know, we believe fervently that Black Lives Matter. My worry is that in reaction to the extreme protests of today, we might forget the tragedy of innocent people of color. George Floyd’s brother stated the case well when he chastised those vandals who used his brother’s death to enact other injustices.
