Statues celebrate bigotry

Sue Lani Madsen’s well-reasoned argument (Aug. 26 column) for leaving statues commemorating controversial historical figures as “teaching opportunities” ignores one inescapable fact: statues commemorating Confederate history are already educational instruments — instruments that teach that racism and bigotry are not only permissible but that they are to be celebrated, honored and emulated.

The “culture” those statues represent is not a simple example of the complexity of history, they are a celebration of a systematic system of inexcusable cruelty, exploitation and suppression that continues to dominate the thinking of too many Americans even today.

Several years ago, my late wife and I visited her aunt and cousin in Mississippi. In every other sentence one or the other would use the “N- word” as casually as we would say “him” or “her.” Each time they did, we winced, and her cousin noticed. With a wry grin, he said, “Y’all don’t like it when we say that, do you?” We said we don’t use that word and don’t approve of its use. He said, “You Northerners just don’t understand the way it is down here.”

Amen. If we are ever to move beyond that kind of inability to understand each other, those statues must go.

Steve Blewett

Spokane