Gary Shapiro's The Meaning Of Our Confederate

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Recently there has been news about people heavily wanting Confederate statutes to be taken down due to their relation with slavery. While many have their own views on the matter, one in particular stands out. The view of preserving them in a way that’ll keep both sides happy and to preserve the history behind them. This “contextualized” view, as discussed in Gary Shapiro’s “The Meaning of Our Confederate ‘Monuments’” I believe should not only be applied to the Confederate statutes but other monuments and memorials as well. Memorials being made in order to remember an event or person, while a monument is made in order to honor an event or person(Shapiro). While it is in fact very reasonable to want to take these statutes down due to evil background, they are still a part of history. Instead, we should follow the “contextualized” view and add context to all monuments and memorials as their meanings change throughout time. …show more content…

A prime example is shown in Mark Connelly’s “Memorials and Monuments” where it discusses briefly how “Totalitarian powers also used memorials as reminders and imparters of a certain ideology”. Now Imagine what these memorials would represent to a society that has overcome these “Totalitarian powers”, symbols of oppression I would imagine. However, they are necessary reminders of oppression that not only tell the struggle of the society in question, but also helps them learn from their

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