This is Brig. General Tilghman of the Confederate army. Yes, that one. Very imposing statue. Right about a block from me on a large round-about or a small round park (you pick), Fountain Avenue. It's lovely in that area (not the statue, the area). The statue really neither adds nor takes away from it. There have been some talk now in Paducah about removing him - I think there is more than one statue and changing the name of the high school, also named after him. When this business of bringing down statutes that were offensive first started happening, at first I was heartbroken. I am a lover of history, albeit ancient history. I love old things, retro things, and doing it old style. But I also believe history is important - we can't forget it - or we are doomed to repeat it. And seems to prove itself out - over and over again.

But I started reading some other opinions, yep, everyone has them...and reflected on them. There is a lot of emotion involved in this issue. So many people take it as a personal affront that anyone would want to take away this part of their history. I get that - but I think what I really see are people who simply are unwilling to consider change or think about change. This is because of the reason proposed for the change. What if, we were to go to city council and say, we'd like to remove that statue of that guy (does anyone even remember who he is?) put him in a nice museum where he belongs and replace him with a statue of  Dakota Louis Meyer, a Marine Corp veteran in Afghanistan and Medal of Honor recipient or Cassius Clay, better known as Muhammad Ali (although I'm not sure what he did for humanity - he is still a great man that kids can look up to as a hero - much preferred than say RKelly). Both suggestions are from Kentucky and there are plenty more in the last century.

I tried to put myself in the shoes of those who are offended by this statue. In order to do that, I needed to think of something that could happen to me that would so greatly impact me that my life would change for the worse. That was easy but it would involve a crime, rape. That is one crime that would take away my rights, make me feel out of control, and never feel safe again. And I thought what if there was a statue of this person up there on Fountain Avenue? After all, since 1863 it has been illegal to enslave humans. Therefore, General Tilghman is a criminal in this day and age and in the eyes of those who are still feeling the impact of slavery, or rather racial discrimination, for that is what slavery really was, white people looking at black people and believing them to be inferior enough that the white people thought nothing of taking away their civil, human, and basic rights. So I think I could relate to the feeling of utter disrespect I would feel coming from those who think the statue should stay.

As a white person, I get to hear, all too often comments by other whites who are completely baffled by the blacks who are resentful about slavery. They say things like, "get over it, slavery happened a long time ago" or "I wasn't the one who enslaved your relatives" and other careless thoughtless comments. It's obvious they have no clue what the resentment is all about. It's not really about slavery. It's about the fact that it ever happened - and the aftermath. Let's face it - whites still treat blacks despicably if given a chance to get away with it. I worked in Milwaukee Public Schools - and could see evidence of discrimination everywhere - and then hear: "why don't these black people pick themselves up and fix their lives instead of living on handouts?" Because they know no other life - they have been repressed and enclosed in a small area of Milwaukee and have been denied housing in other parts of the city either because it's too expensive or simply because they are black, although of course that is not the reason given. They are denied good jobs because they don't have transportation to where the good jobs are and don't have the money to get transportation, or they don't have the education, or let's face it simply because they are black. And education? It's not that it's not out there, it's that culturally they've grown up in this environment of lackluster care, no ambition, no desire. To say education is going to help them is ridiculous, they know better. It will not make a difference most of the time, so why bother? It's a terrible wicked catch-22 and most people can't understand it because they don't live in it. You absolutely have to live in someone's shoes before you can truly understand.

So bringing this back around full circle to the statues, when a certain group of people say that a statue offends them, and they can produce valid evidence that the person the statue represents was at one time an oppressor of their families, a person who practiced slavery or promoted it, do we really want to say to them, "tough luck it's history, we are keeping it?" What does that answer, alone, say? It says we still do not respect who they are. Somehow, I can't help but think that if we put up no fuss what so ever - and take down the statues (and put them where they belong, in a museum) and replace them with more current hero's - that more than likely the fuss would blow over before it barely started. It's all the fussing and fighting over these issues that make them worse, that blow them up, and become a sickness that spreads across our nation. We feed the media the sensations and the media feeds it back to us - starved for more sensation. What ever happened to compromise and respect? We need to learn to let this go - these statues are indeed history. But why are these so special that they must stay up at all costs? Why not pull them down? They can always be placed in other non-offensive locations for history. There are plenty of other people who deserve the same honor. So we could easily be taking care of two problems - giving respect to newer heros and giving respect to people who deserve it - and haven't yet truly received it.