By Sofi Daniels ‘23,

“The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.”

― George Orwell

Unlike other nations, Americans do not share a single ethnicity or religion. We have nothing other than our history, flag, pledge of allegiance and national anthem to unify our citizens. 

A recent and disturbing trend of cancel culture and destroying statues/monuments/memorials have spread like wildfire. Tearing down statues in the guise of “justice” and “equality” is a first-class ticket to obliterating our history and our culture. 

If the main goal of these vigilantes who desecrate and tear down statues is to cleanse the streets of symbols of bloody and tragic history, then why in New York City, Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Los Angeles and Seattle the Lenin statues are left untouched? Why in Central Park is there still a statue depicting an actor personifying Che Guevara? Both figures represent an ideology that killed more than 100 million people (of all races, ethnicities, sexual orientations, gender and religions) and terrorized countless more. Wouldn’t Communism represent an ugly side of our history and the world’s that would merit being placed in either a museum or be taken down? 

Why are some rioters tearing down Abolitionists who opposed and fought against Slavery? How do Abolitionists merit elimination? What about rioters toppling down the great writer and creator of Don Quixote, Don Miguel de Cervantes, who was a slave after being captured by North African pirates? And setting fire to the Virgin Mary and religious symbols? Since when was religion racist? 

In other words, the slippery slope of who deserves to be standing and who deserves to be teared down is too thin and becoming too much determined by visceral emotions and desires to vandalize anything that represents American history.

There’s no doubt that some of the statues they are tearing down represent tragedies in our nation’s history, such as statues that represent slavery and the Civil War. Both broke up families and led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. But, we are destined to repeat our history if we try to get rid of every evidence of our troubled past. It is far better to write plaques to shed light on an individual’s complicated role in our nation than it is to just desecrate them because “we’re offended.” How will our children and other future generations learn about our nation and all the good, bad and ugly aspects of it? 

More importantly, who would replace these statues? Who would we highlight in history? Which narrative would be taught and regurgitated by millions of students? As different definitions of “good” and “bad” are constructed how can we prevent an eradication and silencing of historical figures we disagree with? Is anyone safe from potentially being teared down or forgotten? No one seems to be answering what would fill the void. 

If we continue to demand history and narratives we disagree with or that go against a specific political agenda to be re-written, what will be left? 

Preserving American history is important to me. It’s deeper than stubborn patriotism. My mom saw her country’s history eradicated and replaced with the new religion of Communism and State loyalty. I would like to think my mom’s reasons for escaping Communism and coming to the freest country didn’t die in vain. Without our history defined and preserved, we would fall easily into Marxist’s pseudo realities and divisive tactics. Afterall, united we stand; divided we fall. Let’s not turn this country into a repeat of my mother’s, where I had family members sent to prison, concentration camps, re-education programs, lost jobs, kicked out of university for not being a communist, killed, commit suicide, had their properties and money stolen/confiscated along with countless other human rights violations. The only remedy to this re-education and destabilization is to instill national pride and unity. It’s good practice to critique our nation, and we are lucky we have the privilege to do so without facing any serious consequences, but we cannot fall for Marxist tactics and strategies that only exist to collapse Western Society and divide us. As Churchill said, “Socialism is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy.” It’s time we stand up to preserve all sides of our nation’s history and unify under the American identity.