There are reminders of history all around us. Some people take pride in what they see. Some people are disgusted. Some have painful memories. Some are clueless.

Regardless of how any one person feels about it, it is in fact part of history.

We can look at these monuments and reminders and we can clinch our fists and say, “I hate that this happened, hate the fact I am reminded of it, hate the fact it’s part of my past and hate the people who put it here,” or we can look at these monuments and clinch our fists and say, “never again”.

Some may see a Civil War memorial and be reminded of a Southern soldier who was thrust from the farm lands into a war for what they believed.

Some may see a Civil War memorial and be reminded of their ancestor who proudly served his country in stopping a rebellion from the South. Some people may see something entirely different.

There is something I feel we should all see — a reminder that at one point in history our country was so divided, so filled with anger, so filled with contempt that it was willing to turn on itself, kill its fellow neighbor and ravage the lands until the country was broken.

I see a reminder that when we divide as a nation, we suffer as a nation.

I see a reminder that when we cannot subdue our passions we bring about destruction. I see a reminder that a country had to kill itself in order to find itself.

Maybe we should spend less time looking at the past and trying to disassemble it and instead look at the past and learn from it.

Maybe we should look at our present-day life and assess what we are doing, what we are saying, how we are living and how we are acting and think about what kind of monument people will build for us and how others will look at it.

Maybe we, as a society and a country, should do things that make future monuments, pictures, statues and memorials — something that we can all be proud of.

The monuments of the past remind us of what we have done. It is what we do today that will determine what our monuments look like in the future.