All the things you said about Grant are correct. But it can be argued that the good things he did outweighed the bad. In that case, is it ok to tear down a statue?
Why not? It's not like statues are some sacred principle.
And in the Fourth of July, as the US celebrates declaring independence from its past status as a colony, of rebelling against an imperial monarch that no doubt did lots of good, but also taxed them without representation, let's also celebrate our current revolutions against injustice.
We should not idolize people, not even if they did good things. And if in the revolutionary throes of fighting for justice, the wrong statue gets taken down, that is so unbelievably tame and minor compared to what we celebrate on Independence Day.
One right doesn’t cancel out a wrong, or vice versa.
The problem with a statue is that it literally sets something in stone; perhaps these particular statues are being torn down because people don’t think the conversation is over; that there is more to be said, more to be heard, and more to learn.
