General Discussion

but thank you for doing this research. The question was somewhat rhetorical, but since you took the time to answer with some data I feel I owe you an answer of my own.

Buildings and memorials, significant as they may be, are not necessarily preserving or conveying accurate history.

How much did we as a culture spend on confederate monuments? Was that preserving history, or distorting it?

I've been to the Vietnam Wall, and as touching as it is, it says nothing about the causes of our involvement there, nothing about the actual history aside from the fact that Americans died during that conflict. Similarly, Independence Hall says little if anything about, say, how one reason for the revolt was the British signing of treaties with Native nations restricting Anglo settlement west of the Appalachians.

I've been to Gettysburg. It's been a while. but when I was there I saw relatively little about, for instance, the history of the African slave trade and its impact on American culture and society. This may have changed--like I say it's been a while-but in the current political climate if there is more than I remember it's now in danger of being purged in our current campaign against "woke."

Ditto the Lincoln Memorial.

To use what might be an outrageous analogy, millions and millions of people visited Lenin's tomb at the Kremlin--I've been there too--and the Soviet government spent tens of millions of dollars--probably more--preserving that carcass and the building in which it was housed. I'd hardly call that a commitment to history.

How much history is taught in school? How historically literate are we as a people? I run across young people who have no idea what the Cuban Missile Crisis was about. I saw a video on Youtube in which a seemingly very bright young American woman wondered why Berlin was an issue between east and west. Hell, a candidate for Vice President of the United States--Sarah Palin--reportedly didn't know that Germany was our enemy during World War II. And our current president evidently believes there were fighter aircraft used during the American revolution. In a culture with any degree of historical literacy a statement like that would have been immediately disqualifying.

And have you seen the recent figures on those who believe the Holocaust never happened, or that the moon landing was faked?

"One in 10 young Americans believes that the Holocaust never happened, while 23 per cent think it’s a myth or that the number of those killed has been exaggerated.

In a 50-state survey of Americans aged between 18 and 39, 12 per cent said they had never heard, or thought they had never heard, the word “Holocaust” before."

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/holocaust-denial-conspiracy-theories-america-b1869838.html

Money spent on monuments, while important, doesn't mean we're actually taking history as seriously as we should.

And then again, just for comparison:

"NFL revenue eclipsed $23 billion across the 2024 fiscal year, as reported by Ben Fischer of the Sports Business Journal. It marked the second consecutive year where NFL revenue jumped by at least $2 billion and represented record-setting revenue for the league once again."

https://sportsnaut.com/nfl/where-does-nfl-revenue-come-from/

And that's just the revenue posted by the NFL. It doesn't include college or high school football, nor is it a measure of "economic impact" which is probably far higher.

Anyway, thanks again for taking my post seriously enough to do some research. I'm glad so many people visit our memorials and monuments, and worry about the impact the Trump cuts and layoffs at the National Park Service will have. And I apologize for this overlong and wordy post.

Best wishes.