Now I know many people, even some of my family members, will say Jefferson was not as bad as a leader of the Confederate Army. After all, he wrote the Declaration of Independence, created the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, made the Louisiana Purchase and participated in the founding of the Library of Congress and the University of Virginia. I respect him for those things… but on the other hand, ask yourself if you can look past the fact that he owned more than 600 people against their will, knew it was wrong, but never let them go.

Can you look past that and praise him as an idol on a pedestal just because he wrote a document that he thought did not apply to you or your family in the first place? He has a place in our history, to be sure; but this place needs to be occupied by the real Thomas Jefferson, not the character he projected through his more inspirational writings.

Would removing statues and renaming military bases create a slippery slope toward getting rid of every statue and historical building’s name? It seems unlikely—there are just too many. But that’s a chance I’m willing to take if it will make people feel more equal, instead of feeling degraded each time they pass a statue or building that looks down on them, figuratively and literally, insinuating they don’t belong. Such monuments are like bullies—non-verbal but still imposing, constantly present.