As a white man, (Irish descendant in case Dowell wasn't a dead giveaway) whose ancestors fought for the union, I have very little cause to take these statues down. The south as a nation fought for slavery, there is no doubt about that. The north fought to eradicate slavery, there is no doubt about that. But the individual is where things get quite a bit of grey. A lot of people were forced into fighting on BOTH sides on threat of execution. A lot of people, obviously fought willingly purely for the moral/immoral cause. And a lot of people fought willingly just because their friends and family were, in their eyes, under direct threat regardless of which side they were on, out of duty. And there are a few more reasons I could think of where things aren't so black and white, no pun intended such as pure good ol' fashion being lied to.
I can see a few similarities here with North Koreans. We wouldn't justify the actions of the state, but their army and their people is made up of people that are literally starving, demoralised, and it would make no difference to them at this point whether or not they die right here right now in a conflict or starve tomorrow. They are demoralised because they are under constant fear of imminent attack; they simply have nothing left to lose. This is all from young adults who grew up there and escaped.
The rational, empathetic person weighs these things in there mind and sees that these people are only our enemies because past wars between their people and ours made it so. These people fight for their families and their home and and gasp their identity. Those are the only things they have left because their human rights, the ones we enjoy, were stolen from them long ago. We fought to give them those rights too, and we failed.
One last point before I conclude this lengthy comment, is drawn from the recent and powerful Mel Gibson movie, Hacksaw ridge. It is based on the true story of a man who fought with honor, who ran into the midst of hellfire without a weapon just to save lives. The kicker? He even did his best to save his enemies, mortally wounded and otherwise.
The most beautiful, elegant, and simple words Desmond Doss said in the entire film said were "With the whole world set on tearing itself apart, it don't seem like such a bad thing to try to put a little bit of it back together again." This sentiment from a simple Bible believing man from segregation era Lynchburg, Virginia.
Who did he end up saving? 75 men including the likes of which murdered his friends and comrades mercilessly right in front of him.
We NEED to remember that that kind of spirit exists now, it existed in segregation era U.S. and it sure as hell existed in the slavery filled civil war era. It has ALWAYS existed in the hearts of men, even brutal men.
Deep down what we are fighting is the hard fact that our declared enemies have the capacity to have a change of heart even in the midst of battle, when the world literally explodes around them and show compassion towards their enemies. History is not just littered but polluted with this kind of person. Nazi officers had a change of heart, even showed mercy (Ellie Weizel depicted this in night)
Don't let ideology blind you; recognise that these statues deserve to remain, not for the evil in the number of the hundreds of thousands, but for the sake of that one who stood up in the face of evil for what is right at every cost. THAT is why the statues should remain. Those people deserve to be honored, and have their names listed etched in stone and welded metal that lasts forever, for the world to see. Their names do not deserve to be hidden away, or worse end up in the garbage can.
Let them stand prominently so that we understand the evil deeds our people's committed in the past and the mistakes our ancestors made. And for God's sake let free speech survive so that the evil men of our day serve as a firsthand testament as to why we shouldn't repeat the atrocities. That's something no history book or museum can ever give us, and without the bill of rights no one can freely witness against them. If nothing else, let them self incriminate until their kind fades out and is annihilated by the sands of time.