Our scars make us better

I have a scar on my arm from getting scratched by a chicken, and a scar on my leg where I fell into barbed wire in my parent's pasture, and a scar on my wrist from breaking a window at my parent's house after my brother had locked the door.  These scars are my physical reminders of lessons that I have learned over the years.  I sometimes wish that I didn't have these scars, especially the ones on my wrist, but I do.  I can't change what happened, when I got these scars.  But I can learn from them and change my future behavior so I don't get anymore scars like them again.  

Like a lot of people in our country I have been trying to wrap my brain around all the protests and the tearing down of statues.  And I get the pain and frustration, I can empathize with people who feel that they are not treated fairly in our country.  I can empathize with people who are angry with our countries history, it is terrible how our country has treated people, even in modern history.  I have even been treated differently due to my stature and gender, although that is a very small example and is in no way comparable to discrimination other people have experienced.  

Our country, the United States of America, has scars of racism, and oppression, misogyny, and acts of cruelty. These acts were either perpetrated by individuals or with the approval of the government.  These scars are so current that really they could be called scabs on wounds, somewhat healed from time but still painful in the background of our memory.  

While watching the protests and specifically the tearing down of statues, and the erasing of public figures who lead less than honorable lives I fear that we are washing away our scars.  Our scars remind us of what we have lived through, the lessons we have learned.  We walk a tenuous line of not forgetting our past and looking toward the future.  If we wash away the bad moments in our past we will eventually forget our past, and possibly commit these crimes of hate in the future. 

If we want to tear down statues of less than desirable people, fine, but how can we show our past, our scars, so that we remember our past in a way that we don't repeat it in the future. Our scars make us better people, it reminds us of what we have done wrong so we don't repeat it.  Our country has many, many scars, but it also has a lot of good people, that just want to do what is right, and remember the past to do a better job in the future. 

So, I believe we should keep our scars in sight, they are not a pretty part of our past. But they remind us of what not to do. Help us teach the future to stay away from acts of evil, and remind us of how far we have come.