There is currently a movement going on to ban recognition of
anyone from history who by today’s standards would be seen as a bad person,
regardless of the great things they may have also done. One example is that
some people want to remove George Washington’s name from schools and other
sites because he was a slave owner. This is a dangerous thing. To judge the
past by the perceived justice of today is not something anyone should do. Is it
bad that Washington owned slaves? By today’s standards, Absolutely. By the
standards of his day… No.
We as a people and as a society evolve. Our standards of good and evil evolve. That is a great thing! However, we need to let the past be the past. We cannot improve the present, let alone the future, if we are so busy attacking ghosts. We need to learn from the past, of that there is no doubt, but we also need to let go of our own guilt, hate, and victimhood of how things are now due to the past in order to be able to create effective change. If we are so focused on changing what happened in the past, we cannot focus on what needs to change now. If you don’t like how you are treated, find a way to make people treat you how you want to be treated. Yes, I know easier said than done and not everyone will see beyond face value. However, if you don’t affect change yourself, why should anyone else change?
We have to admit that we are all flawed. I know some of you are thinking “Well duh! I know that!” and some of you are thinking “I’m not as flawed as you are!” Guess what… Those are flaws. That is entirely your ego talking. If you truly want to admit you are flawed, you should have thought about what flaws you know about way back in your mind that you try to hide from everyone, even from yourself.
Without being able to shut off your ego and admit that you too aren’t perfect, you will never affect change in yourself nor in the world around you. Will you be thought of in two hundred years by your ancestors the same way we are now being told we should think of George Washington? Odds are you will be. In two hundred years the world will be an entirely different place with entirely different morals and societal standards. All you can do is try to do great things and improve the world so that your “bad deeds” as seen from the future, are outweighed by the good things you have accomplished. Kind of like George Washington who was integral in our separation from England, winning the Revolutionary War, setting up the foundation for The United States of America, and laying the path for all the amazing things we have done since. So, yes, George Washington was a slave holder. But he himself laid out the path for a nation that fairly soon after, abolished slavery.
We as a people and as a society evolve. Our standards of good and evil evolve. That is a great thing! However, we need to let the past be the past. We cannot improve the present, let alone the future, if we are so busy attacking ghosts. We need to learn from the past, of that there is no doubt, but we also need to let go of our own guilt, hate, and victimhood of how things are now due to the past in order to be able to create effective change. If we are so focused on changing what happened in the past, we cannot focus on what needs to change now. If you don’t like how you are treated, find a way to make people treat you how you want to be treated. Yes, I know easier said than done and not everyone will see beyond face value. However, if you don’t affect change yourself, why should anyone else change?
We have to admit that we are all flawed. I know some of you are thinking “Well duh! I know that!” and some of you are thinking “I’m not as flawed as you are!” Guess what… Those are flaws. That is entirely your ego talking. If you truly want to admit you are flawed, you should have thought about what flaws you know about way back in your mind that you try to hide from everyone, even from yourself.
Without being able to shut off your ego and admit that you too aren’t perfect, you will never affect change in yourself nor in the world around you. Will you be thought of in two hundred years by your ancestors the same way we are now being told we should think of George Washington? Odds are you will be. In two hundred years the world will be an entirely different place with entirely different morals and societal standards. All you can do is try to do great things and improve the world so that your “bad deeds” as seen from the future, are outweighed by the good things you have accomplished. Kind of like George Washington who was integral in our separation from England, winning the Revolutionary War, setting up the foundation for The United States of America, and laying the path for all the amazing things we have done since. So, yes, George Washington was a slave holder. But he himself laid out the path for a nation that fairly soon after, abolished slavery.
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