As a history buff, I disagree with taking down offensive statues. Especially with ropes and mobs. The retorts that "we can still learn about them in history books" or "put them in a museum" is BS. Americans are not going to read or go to museums. They are going to look as far as their teacher/professor tells them to look, or believe what the snarkiest political commentary on TV tells them to believe.

My term for these people is "non-readers", and they are taking over the dialogue.

I do have a suggestion if this is the future of my country:

Take down ALL STATUES and replace them with statues of fictional characters. 

This will satisfy the adult children in the streets who want to dive into the realm of intellectual discussion by screaming at people, while giving them a safe space to view buffs of their favorite superheros.

I love all the statues around the city of London. 
Leave them be. 
As you say, taking them down doesn't change the history of them.

in Estonia 10 years ago was moment then Politicians removed Bronze soldier statue (Ussr died soldiers monument) and because of it was some kind of rebel and many local crushed shops,cars and so on. So in my opinion statues should be because its history art and they can destroy peace if will be removed.

I agree - we just have to live with our history. The battle for a better world is happening in the classroom, not in symbolic actions. Sadly the idea of removing statues actually mimics the totalitarian worldview of the  revolutionary movements of the twentieth century that stood for some of the greatest atrocities ever.

There's a small town in Germany where one of the churchbells is called *Hitler*. The bell has deemed a protected monument, so the towns people  have to listen to *Hitler* every Sunday, wedding and baptism. That's what happens when you invent nazism.... they have to live with it like the rest of us have to live with colonialism.

This whole movement seems to be spreading like wild fire! Interesting and scary!

I think the tearing down of statues is a symbolic gesture more than anything

More work for sculptors! whee! ;) :D

You may have gotten this one right.  Lol... I don't think I have ever told you those words before.
 I don't watch tv news ... Someone told me people roped the Robert E Lee statue in the south and people want all confederate stuff gone.. Okay.. I understand, I get it but isn't there a better way to even do this...maybe put them on some museum grounds so people can spit on them if they hate them.  But to have two groups fighting and killing in some instances...is that any better? .. Hate is the new norm .. so hate me for saying this.. I can't even believe I am writing this comment.

Im a farily liberal sort of guy, and Im against facism, racism and slavery.  However, I dont think Nelson is on his column, because he was a facist, racist, slaver.

Nelson is a hero because he fought and won great battles in furthering the dominance of his nation, at a time when all nations only sought dominance.  There was no United Nations or similar, everyone was out to cut everyone elses throats as efficiently as possible.  This thinking went on until after the world had been ravaged by WW1 and WW2, and it finally became clear that one nation or people should not stand in dominance over another.

We pick'n'mix history enough already, and so long as we review it through a modern ethical lens, it has nothing for us to fear.