LETTER: How far will we go in destroying our history?

Portraits of House speakers who served in the Confederacy were removed ahead of Juneteenth after Nancy Pelosi’s order. So what’s next? Tear down the Jefferson and Washington monuments; remove Benjamin Franklin’s picture from the $100 bill; remove the names Washington and Jefferson from every street, city, state and district? Should we destroy the White House because there were slaves there?

What about the ancestral homes of our Founding Fathers? Burn them to the ground? Perhaps eliminate the words “rebel” “Black” and “southern” among others? What about cotton? Should it no longer be grown? Maybe go all the way and remove all references to the Bible because it refers to slavery, murder and torture?

Yes, these are unrealistic — even stupid — suggestions. Or are they?

Things that took place in the past have not been pretty. But history is not pretty. It’s history — and destroying or eliminating all mention of the past will not change anything. It seems only to be making things worse. Yes, we definitely need change. But are we moving forward to learn from and improve on the past or are we making the past what today is all about?