I'm not knocking statues as useful visual aides when teaching history. I guess my point is that it's a kneejerk reaction to say history is being erased when we decide certain subjects don't deserve the prominence in contemporary times. 

People want to pretend that removing a statue is somehow equivalent to whitewashing history. I've heard a lot of conservative pundits that argue removing these is some sort of attempt to avoid discussing the Civil War or slavery. That's ridiculous. I know nobody who wants to remove these statues so we can forget the war, or why it was fought, or the people involved. They're just sick of using public funds to honor the people who fought against the Union (that would be us), for slavery (which is morally wrong).