Where do we draw the line on tearing down monuments and statues? Some, including some news editors, have suggested that at least three presidents whose faces appear on Mount Rushmore have no place there at all, making the famous monument a celebration of white supremacy.
Is this a standard that any of us can live with? As long as we’re discussing erasing past presidents in order to placate a social justice mob, what about President Franklin Roosevelt — the iconic FDR whose face stares back at us from the dime and whose expansive monument takes up a large space in Washington adjacent to the National Mall?
People see and think of FDR each day. He was placed on the currency for his role in leading the nation through the Great Depression and World War II. But his conduct was at least as problematic as some of those earlier leaders whose place in public memory is now at risk.
In 1939, FDR ignored the desperate pleas of Jews on board the SS St. Louis who were seeking shelter in the United States in order to escape certain death in Nazi Germany. The lack of mercy is self-evident. Less known is the fact that on Aug. 25, 1944, our pilots spotted the crematoria and death camps in Poland being used in the Holocaust. They even saw the small wells in which cyanide pills were dropped to execute millions. It was suggested to FDR that the railroads to the camps, and perhaps the camps themselves, be bombed. But some military leaders suggested to FDR that our planes were better utilized bombing battlefield areas. FDR agreed, even though the U.S. was by that time certain to win the war in Europe.
It would be another year before the war ended. The additional deaths in concentration camps resulting from FDR’s decision is a horrific thing to consider.
Perhaps even more far-reaching was FDR’s decision to hide his disability. He was paralyzed from the waist down, but FDR kept it from the public for political reasons. He would stand at the podium and even appeared to walk.
Having become president, he could have made great advances for the disabled if he had been transparent about his condition. The long-range social effects of his decision were devastating. For many decades afterward, disabled persons would be ashamed about their condition and struggle to hide disabilities. The model FDR set adversely affected many and set back the cause of destigmatizing such conditions.
With these facts in mind (and there are more, such as the internment of loyal Japanese Americans), should FDR’s face be deleted from the dime? Should people slash or tear down statues that have honored FDR? Of course not. We honor FDR for the good he did in his lifetime. Most reasonable people would agree that it outweighs the bad.
In either case, the facts show that drawing the line between which monuments and statues stand and those that “should” fall is not an easy one. As Jesus wisely counseled, “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.” Today, some advocates would happily throw stones at our forebears based on modern standards of morality that would have been alien to them in their day. They scarcely pause to consider how the people of tomorrow will judge them.
Do we need a bright line to draw between those whose images will be smashed and those we continue to revere? Such line-drawing may not be necessary. If a historical figure is thought to have engaged in conduct that is socially immoral, let his or her statue or monument stand. Have a respected historian tell the facts on a plaque that educates the public about the person’s wrongful acts but also includes some good that the person did in his or her lifetime.
Very few people in history were entirely good or evil. Surely, when it comes to our former presidents, Founding Fathers, and genuine heroes who shaped our nation’s history, the opportunity for education about the good and bad of historical figures is much better than the barbaric obliteration of their memories.
Victor Schwartz has served in both Republican and Democratic administrations. He is a former law school professor and dean who practices law in Washington.
