Monuments are a very controversial topic currently, some want them removed and some want them to be kept. Monuments are a reminder of what the person did in their lifetime. Dealing with this whole situation can be difficult. This can be very hard for a person to decide, such as Bill De Blasio, this is a great opportunity to help him. I believe that These monuments should not have any negative controversy in the media or in the community, if they do we will take further action by removing it or moving it to a different location.
One of the criterion I chose would be What was the history behind the person. Basically did the person have a bad past. If the community is not happy and the monument has negative controversy then we should take action. For example there is a statue in central park named after J. Marion Sims, people called him the “father of modern gynecology and a pioneer in the field of surgery”. But a lot of people don’t know that he committed a series of experimental operations on enslaved black women. People in the community are not happy, having this monument in a public area like this is not a good idea. It is kind of promoting racism, and also it shows hate and negativity towards our race. A person like this should not have a statue up, at least not in this area. People now and days should not just know the good things that a person did in their lifetime, They should know every aspect of their life. The media and school always teaches the stuff in the person life that they did good but they never tell you about the bad side of them, its like they don’t want you to know what really happened.
Some people think monuments shouldn’t be taken down just because a certain group of people doesn’t necessarily like the specific person, but some of the monuments can get pretty offensive if you know the back story of that specific person. My second criterion would be letting the members of the community decide what they want to do. The community members actually live in the area and they walk past the specific monuments everyday, they should have an input to what happens. The options would be moving it to a different location which would cost tons of money or destroying/removing it. Not doing something about this situation that we are currently in would not be very good, if we don’t do something soon there could be an increase in protests, vandalism, etc. The community has to come together and do something about this as soon as possible.
One of my last criterions would be does the monument give a positive influence or does it have a good message. A lot of these monuments have people that were good to some people but bad to others. One example of this would be the monument that probably has the most controversy, the Christopher Columbus monument in Columbus circle. People mainly know him for being one of the first Italian explorers to discover North America in 1492. The thing people don’t know about him is that he killed and enslaved indigenous tribes. Columbus Basically invaded America and committed the act of genocide. On top of that there are 4 statues of him in New York. A statue like this is pretty vague because a lot of people don’t know about this bad side. This shows how he was a hero and a villain at the same time. On top of that he even has his own holiday which is insane. A monument like this does not show a positive influence and does not give a positive message.
A lot of people are saying that they want to keep the monument but put a plaque under it that explains the monument and what they did. This idea is terrible because it won’t stop the protests, vandalism, and violence. This idea will still not change the communities views on the monument. People want the monuments taken down because they are offensive, people don’t necessarily want an explanation plaque. This will cause even more negative controversy because it is not helping the situation at all. The only 2 options are removing it or moving it.
In conclusion, not everyone will agree with this criteria but it is completely fair, in my opinion. There are different options that you could choose. A lot of these “Historic Leaders” were both heroes and villains and we need to take Action.
