The progressive left wants to remove any public commemoration or acknowledgement of all individuals who, in the past, engaged in conduct which is now considered morally unconscionable. Any memorial to a Confederate soldier or political figure must be erased from display. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson are to be ostracized from modern history because they owned slaves. Christopher Columbus must be thrown onto the ash heap because he claimed to have discovered a place that was already inhabited.
Even as you read this post, cranes are lifting statues from pedestals in town centers, plaques are being removed, holidays are being renamed, and textbooks are being purged of favorable mention of any historical figure who runs afoul of the new morality.
It matters not to progressives that the definition of morality has changed over the centuries – all people, even those long dead, are to be measured by the standards of today. Yes, it was once legal to own slaves, it was once legal to employ children in factories, it was once accepted to marry children and lobotomize homosexuals. We certainly do not condone such things in today’s society, but does that mean that our predecessors were immoral? They simply observed the legal practices of the society of their day. Does that make them wrong?
If that is the case, and we should properly judge our ancestors by today’s moral measure, then what will happen when our own descendants look back on us? What if some future society decides that animals are entitled to legal rights as individuals? Will the achievements of pet owners and meat eaters be ignored due to their past violations of animal rights? Would that be right?
For those progressives so transfixed on punishing those who behaved according to their time, for no other reason than because what they did in the past is not what they should do in the present, I have a proposition:
For every Hollywood celebrity or entertainer who is found to have been a sexual harasser, or rapist, or wife abuser, or has engaged in any other past behavior that was generally acceptable when they did it, let’s erase them from history. It’s only fair, right?
I challenge the entertainment industry to take back the Oscars, Emmys, Golden Globes, Clios, and Grammy awards, pry the terrazzo and brass stars out of the sidewalk on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and purge each and every celebrity miscreant from all records of industry achievement.
Progressives have a knack for overlooking their own transgressions, however, so I won’t hold my breath waiting for the purge to happen.
Perhaps they could take all of those pried out stars and put them somewhere else – maybe create a “Hollywood Walk of Shame .”
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