This is a part of living in society. Many times, there are people who will do certain things that will end up being for the good of the people. They’re praised for their bravery and the sacrifices they made for their country. And many times, these sacrifices are rewarded. Some are rewarded while they’re alive to receive them, others are rewarded posthumously. Across several fields, we’ve seen it happen.
It’s no news that scandals have rocked a lot of heroes' pasts. We’ve seen news where it turned out that some heroes only took credit for other people’s work, while keeping them in obscurity. We’ve learned news of some of the horrific things people have done to actually achieve some of the good things that they did.
The truth is that, many times, as the media is prone to do, they will not always release the full story to the world. Only when people force their hands, and they can’t avoid it anymore, without appearing to be complicit in whatever terrible action it was. That’s just how bad it can be.
A military general could be the most decorated soldier in the country, having many veterans looking up to him because he had so many feats. But one day, they find out just how brutal he is. They find out how he tortures prisoners of war, and he has no qualms about his soldiers raping and killing women and children during their raids. The truth is, when such a story hits, it might no longer matter that he saved the country from a billion terrorist attacks, everything will be obscured by the fact that he was a known torturer and complicit in the rape of women and children.
In the same way, a doctor could have found the cure for cancer, and as expected, he was celebrated and basically turned into a celebrity. Entire hospitals and streets were renamed after him, and sculptures were erected in his name because he saved humanity. But later on, it’s revealed that for him to get that cancer, he had to experiment on countless human beings. Many of whom died, since the experiments were illegal, he targeted mostly illegal migrants and the undocumented.
When you learn of this, you might even feel bad about using his cure for cancer. Yeah, it’s groundbreaking, but every time you use it, all you can think of are the people whose lives were cut short prematurely for that miracle cure to be available. Not everyone will be able to handle that.
I can go on and on with examples, but the truth remains the same. Being dead or being declared a national hero doesn’t mean that their past sins have been wiped off completely. That’s not how it works. And when these ugly truths come out, it taints every good thing they’ve ever done. But sadly, we live in a society where, for most of the time, the opinions of the people don’t really matter. Just leaving these sculptures and monuments would be cheaper than tearing them down or changing them. And so, they stay.
And still, regardless of the atrocities they committed, there will still be people who refuse to believe they’re guilty. That’s just how it is. In a nutshell, while some people might want the change, others and the authorities won’t see the point.
Too bad.
