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The study of history offers much more than facts and dates.It offers perspective.That&#8217;s because understanding the past not only helps us understand why things are the way they are today&#8212; in other words, how we got here &#8212; it allows us to anticipate what the future might hold.That&#8217;s the beauty of the subject.But history is also complicated. Very complicated.And that fact has been illustrated again by the present controversy surrounding the removal of statues across our fair land, particularly those depicting &#8220;heroes&#8221; of the short-lived Confederacy.We&#8217;re not going to use this space to argue the merits of one historical figure over the other in an attempt to prove some memorials are more worthy of permanent placement than others.Because if you put anyone&#8217;s life under a microscope, you can find a lot of things you don&#8217;t like. And in the case of famous figures, the odds increase greatly of finding something unsavory, simply because we know so much more about them and can view them in the context of the present.This all brings us to Christopher Columbus, the man who sailed the ocean blue in 1492 and discovered the New World.Right as President Trump was stirring the suddenly hot national debate over monument removal last week, tomato-loving Pittston was proudly re-erecting its Columbus statue.Anyone else find that a bit ironic?Of course, Columbus was dead about 360 years before the Confederacy was formed and is generally held in high regard.But the man had more than a few skeletons in his closet.Some would call him downright evil and nasty.A few years ago, a political commentary site known as The Oatmeal went to lengths to tear his legacy to shreds using the historical record from that time, including letters from Columbus himself.The quick version goes something like this:On his second trip back to what we now call the Caribbean, Columbus demanded the natives &#8220;give his men food and gold, and allow them to have sex with their women,&#8221; The Oatmeal writes.When the natives refused, Columbus &#8212; who arrived heavily armed during his second visit&#8212; &#8220;responded by ordering that their ears and noses be cut off.&#8221;The renown explorer then launched a war, quickly decimating the native population who had only primitive weapons, such as rocks and spears. Some of the fallen Lucayans, inhabitants of what is now the Bahamas, were &#8220;fed to hunting dogs while they were still alive,&#8221; according to The Oatmeal.It didn&#8217;t end there either. Just know that Columbus took some of the Lucayans back to Spain to be sold as slaves and engaged in a whole host of other misdeeds, including sex slavery involving young girls, says The Oatmeal.Horrible stuff.Yet Pittston is far from the only town with some sort of Columbus memorial, and the federal government has even deemed it appropriate to name a holiday in his honor.How can you justify that, in light of his reported atrocities?The answer is you cannot.Figures like Columbus, General Robert E. Lee, and many others must be viewed in the context of their own time and for their overall contributions or significance.In the case of Columbus, while the details are no doubt ugly, his voyages mark a huge step forward in the development of the present-day world.That&#8217;s why statues stand in his honor.We generally disagree with the rush to tear down monuments. However, we also understand the pressing need to make sure the whole story is told about these hallowed names of the past &#8212; warts and all.Yes, it&#8217;s complicated. But like it or not, that&#8217;s history.&#8212; Times Leader<style>
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<div class="neCaption">FILE-In this Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2017 file photo, a statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee sits in Emancipation Park, in Charlottesville, Va. The deadly rally by white nationalists in Charlottesville, Aug. 12, 2017, is accelerating the removal of Confederate statues in cities across the nation. (AP Photo/Julia Rendleman, File)</div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/web1_118092618-656e62f13a80446abf6901e9852ffc58.jpg</photo0><caption0>FILE-In this Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2017 file photo, a statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee sits in Emancipation Park, in Charlottesville, Va. The deadly rally by white nationalists in Charlottesville, Aug. 12, 2017, is accelerating the removal of Confederate statues in cities across the nation. (AP Photo/Julia Rendleman, File)</caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>

Our view: Debate over statues gets complicated