"Those who cannot remember the past

are condemned to repeat it" wrote George Santayana.
To that I will add a Gaelic proverb,
       "Cuimhnichibh air na daoine bho'n d'thainig  sibh" - remember the people whom you come from.
If we don't do these things then what will the future hold?  
It is tempting to cheer when a statue of a tyrant, thief and murderer gets knocked down. Why did anyone put it up there in the first place? We might well ask but, at the time, at least some people must have believed it to be the right thing to do.
I personally think statues are rather silly things. I don't think they serve much of a purpose.
I have several pewter mugs with inscriptions for various prizes won over the years - and a "silver" plate which is probably tarnished too dark to read the inscription. I suppose I could use the mugs but it seems more than a bit pretentious.  If I used the plate I'd put a paper doily on it to hide the inscription although it would still seem pretentious.
But statues are different. They are out there in the world and everyone is intended to see them.  They are, I suppose, intended to acknowledge the great and the good - like those along our "North Terrace". The tourists are more likely to notice those than the locals. There are also brass plates along the inner edge of the footpath. I doubt many people notice them.
All that said though I don't think there is any point in removing them simply because the achievements of those people are no longer considered cause for celebration. Did they do no good at all? Were their actions acceptable at the time?
The Romans had a slave trade. They bought and sold people in the market place. It was am absolutely vile thing to do - and they would not have been the first but they are among the best documented. Through the centuries though nothing much has changed. We still have a slave trade. People are still bought and sold. Much of it was hidden then and it is hidden now. We conveniently forget that many African Americans are descended from people who were actually sold to white slave traders - sold by other Africans. That in no way makes what happened to them right but is it part of a past that needs to be acknowledged? Why don't we do that?
Much of the history in this country has also been taught in ways that have conveniently ignored the actual circumstances. We have abandoned the concept of "terra nullius" (land unoccupied) in favour of acknowledging that this country was inhabited. The Mabo case is in fact a major and very important turning point in our history.  We could put up a statue to Eddie Mabo in every capital and town in the country - but what would it do? It is not what he would have wanted. He has a place in the constitutional law of this country instead. That is a good thing. 
Where we have problems it is because we still persist in teaching myths about such things as deliberately infecting blankets with measles to wipe out the original inhabitants. Measles did cause the death of many of the original inhabitants. It is highly contagious and there was no immunity as the disease was unknown to them. The same might be said for small pox and chicken pox. There are still those who argue that infection was deliberate but it did not need to be to inflict the damage that it did. Saying it was deliberate suits some versions of history. It is as if we have to flay ourselves for the actions of the past.
I am not responsible for what others did. My ancestors also came far too late to be involved but, even if they had come on the First Fleet, I cannot be held responsible for what they did or did not do. What I have to live with instead is my conscience and the way I treat others.  I can learn from the past but it needs to be the actual past and not a convenient version of it. History is not there to make me feel guilty or ashamed but to try and understand so that I do not repeat what has become unacceptable. If we simply pull down the statues I won't have those essential reference points which will help me to understand the present anger and work towards a better future. Let's put more plaques on statues instead - so they can explain the past and the present and work for the future.