Removing memorials doesn't eliminate problem

It’s a shade over 2,500 miles from Cheney to Charlottesville, Va.

That’s a mere one day and 13 hour drive Mapquest says, presumably driving non-stop via Interstate 90 and 94.

But if you’ve driven in that cross country direction before it seems to take that much time just to pass through Montana and whichever Dakota you choose.

The illustration of time and distance is provided to further illustrate not only the physical divide, but the cultural differences that sometime define North and South.

Charlottesville seems to be the apparent new epicenter of a revived civil rights movement following the tragedy that took place there on Aug. 12 as very unfriendly forces clashed to protest the removal of a statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee.

The arguments are many, however, the helpful dialog is oh, so sparse.

Naturally, we Northwesterners were even further removed from the battles of the Civil War, but geography would certainly align us with the blue, not the grey. That means the prevalence of monuments to heroes of this war that sought to split the union are few and far between.

In Helena, Mont. a monument has been removed. Seattle Mayor Ed Murray seeks to have a statue in Capitol Hill’s Lake View Cemetery, which is dedicated to Confederate soldiers, removed. Only problem is the edifice rests on private property.

The nature of any so-called offensive statuary in our neck of the woods surrounds those involved in the Indian Wars of the later 1800s. But reference to the likes of generals George Wright or George Armstrong Custer are pretty much limited to street, mountain and creek names.

The argument was plentiful a couple of decades ago as to just what the official name ought to be: Latah or Hangman Creek?

But what does removing monuments to past history accomplish?

The simple reality is toppling a statue — be it Robert E. Lee or Saddam Hussein — does not make what precipitated their carving go away. History, no matter how painful, simply cannot be erased.

Nor should it because are we not supposed to learn from our history?

A take your breath away journey everyone ought to take if they are afforded the opportunity is to see what remains of the German concentration camp at Dachau near Munich.

It was there that ten’s of thousands of people — that we know of at least — were executed. And the eerie remnants of the camp that remain have been turned into a memorial museum that will make the hair on your neck stand up and send chills through one’s body.

This horrible page in German history remains as a way to share a journey we never want to replicate. It was not bulldozed and buried because it had tragic historical roots.

Some Germans went through complete denial of the horror of the Holocaust but were sometimes ushered through the crematoriums and gas chambers at gunpoint to drive home the truthful reality.

Maybe we just need to talk to the Germans and see what was behind banning in public symbols of hate like the swastika?

It’s the appearance of these symbols that seems to make the incite and instigate pot quickly boil over. So perhaps there should be some limits to our First Amendment rights with what seems to be the visual equivalent of yelling “Fire” in a crowded theater?

The roots of this controversy are oh so complex and travel deep into the history of race relations in this country. They cross various ideological lines and can paint people we view as heroes in a very different light.

The issues are political, economic and, perhaps, above all, social. They are the 1,000-pound gorilla in the room that cannot be ignored and will never remain hidden behind the curtain.

And speaking of long distances, it’s sad that we still even have to talk about trying to solve this issue after nearly 250 years as a nation.