# What should be done about Gettysburg? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [August 17, 2017, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-be-done-about-gettysburg/793853 "2017-08-17T05:14:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 27
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2017, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-be-done-about-gettysburg/793853/27 "2017-08-17T15:04:23Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > Context is everything. In a historical park or in a museum, fine. History happened. The CSA traitors are not being honored there, their statues are there as a history lesson. Contrast that to a statue of Lee outside a southern courthouse. That sends the message “we think that men who took arms against the nation in order to keep other humans in bondage are people that we revere and we endorse their ideals”. > > Similarly, I would not expect statues of Hitler to be in public squares in Germany, but I would expect to see them in German museums. On the anniversary of Pickett’s Charge, the Union spectators sit atop Cemetery Hill and the Confederate “spectators” emerge from the woods on Seminary Ridge and walk the nearly one mile to the Union “lines.” Just as it appears that the Confederates will charge, they face each other at the wall, the commanding officers shake hands, and a pithy little speech about unity is given and everyone goes about their business. Question: Should the shaking of hands be done away with? We wouldn’t shake hands with Nazis, right? Shouldn’t the Union commander yell at the Confederate commander and insult him and tell him he has no place in modern society? --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-be-done-about-gettysburg/793853)._