…as a nation.  Jack Brewer, CEO of the Brewer Group and advisory board member for Black Voices for Trump (and an NFL great, but that’s a separate story) had some thoughts on this while talking about the short-sightedness of tearing things down rather than adding others to the physical symbolism set.

I think at some point in our country we have to remember what makes us so strong and that is our history and our Constitution. It’s the reason why slaves are actually free, it’s the reason why schools are integrated and it’s the reason why right now you’re seeing us be able to fight for so many rights like school choice, fighting against all these late-term abortions and so many other issues that have oppressed the born and the unborn.

Indeed. It’s all of our history, not just the non-existent perfect parts.

It’s all of our history, the good and the bad. After all, if we don’t retain the bad, we can’t recognize the good we’ve done.

If we don’t retain the bad, we can’t learn from those mistakes and keep on doing good, much less do better.

If we don’t retain the bad, we can’t toughen ourselves against them or against bad in general—every wrong, including the trivial, will send our weak individual selves diving under our beds and our nation bowing to others. And begging.