Where do we go next as a People?

The news this week has been full of retributive actions striking back over the horrific scene in Charlottesville, VA. People are ripping down statues indiscriminately, demanding that street names, colleges, buildings all have name changes. Some have suggested blowing up Stone mountain in GA, simply because it shows the Confederate generals; still others want the same for Mount Rushmore. While these are on the fringe, it represents a very dangerous place for the Nation to go.

When I was in college, preparing to teach, my professors had a virtually identical philosophy--teach the truth, and discuss it so students will understand it.

That, in my view, is what we need to do here. Instead of hiding the American past, teach its successes and failures, and, in the case of those failures, how to avoid them in the future. Destroying statues, burning the bust of president Lincoln in Chicago, or blowing up monuments does not help us improve,--it shows the world were are not and better that the ISIS bombers blowing up antiquities, or the Nazi's burning books.It might make some feel good for a few moments but, in terms of long-term change, it generally does nothing.

We are rapidly going into a phase in our history that may be traumatic for many. They will see their institutions and customs destroyed, with nothing to replace them. Others, the professional protesters, will simply move on to other things, leaving us all wondering why we were led down a path that could not succeed.

This is the time for sane, sensible people to take a deep breath (or two) and ask themselves--If we do this, what happens next? The leaders of the French Revolution were eventually executed themselves--people have a habit of turning on each other as they finally get to the point they have nothing else to protest. Let's not let that happen here. Let's make smart decisions which will solve problems, get the crazies off the streets, and let us get back to appreciating each other for what we all are -- AMERICANS.