During the protestant reformation the Vatican came under pressure to destroy what were deemed lude art. Great sculptures and works of art created by renaissance artists inspired by ancient Greek culture.

These protestations caused the Vatican to order the covering up of sculptures. The human form became censored, something to ba ashamed of and hidden. Out of fear that the Catholic church would lose its flock they chose to conform to a sudden rise in popular opinion that art was photographic. This singular act has more recently bern seen as a mass act of vandalism that should never have happened.

Currently our media is filled with stories calling for statues to be destroyed, street names and buildings names to be changed. Those calling for this are doing so for the purpose of removing these evil doers from our streets. They want to not be faced with reminders in the form of effigies to the perpetrators of crimes against their ancestors. I understand that mindset however there is a flip side to doing this. 

Eradicating this part of our heritage commits a huge portion of our shameful to the annals of history books. This part of our history then becomes hidden, forgotten and eventually repeated.

I understand the need to feel remorse and anger but I don't think that metaphorically lynching the statues of known slavers is an answer to the issue. As with all major issues in any civilised society the answer ultimately lies in Education. By all means change names of streets....but leave the former name in place with a plaque that highlights the reason for the change. Effectively name and shame, show our outrage by highlighting what we have learned from these atrocities. Show that we are willing to learn from the mistakes of our history rather than just hide and cower from it forever to hang our heads in shame. Do the same with the statues. It could be an incredible heritage project backed with an improved history curriculum to teach our future generations that what came before us should never be repeated.

I call on our government to protect our heritage and promote a more equality based curriculum in our schools and Universities. Show the world that we will not whitewash our history, we will acknowledge it and move forward having learned the lessons necessary to build an equal society where the #Black lives matter is no longer required because all lives really will matter.