Erasing History

By Andrea Tadpole-Broussard 

6/25/20

Someone posted this question on Facebook in reference to the recent destruction of historical civil war monuments:

If someone kidnapped your child and sold them, where would you want us to put the statue of that person?

Here is my answer:

I would want them displayed right along side the statues of the ones who inailated my Native American ancestors. Especially the ones who forced my Cherokee tribe to walk the Trail of Tears. I have ancestors who actually died on that walk. Yet, we do not hear anything about the value of their lives and the way they were exterminated. 

I just read an article today about Irish slave trade in the early US. I was stunned. I never knew that Irish people were slaves. I also have Irish heritage. I have never heard Irish people protest about it. Was the history erased? It makes me wonder if some of my Irish ancestors were slaves here. I also read that there were also Oriental slaves. So, where does it end?

Frankly, I would rather have a National place where these relics from all cultures, wars and time periods could be displayed with THE WHOLE TRUTH about who these people were and the atrocities they committed. Kinda like the Holocaust Museum?

We are doomed to repeat the atrocities of our past if we refuse to look at them and try to erase them. I think it is better to embrace them, learn from them and change our future.