Revisiting Our Statues
In 2020, America tore down statues from our past, and now, in 2025, many statues of athletes celebrate the present and sacrifice the future.
“Then take care lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery (Deuteronomy 6:12).”
You find out a lot about a culture and society when you look at the heroes they celebrate and the ones they tear down. In the past, America had a warrior and builder ethos that exuded a fierce independent streak. President Donald Trump recently signed an executive order “restoring truth and sanity to American history,” primarily focused on the Smithsonian, National Park monuments, and restoring Independence Hall.
This may go unnoticed, as we seem to enjoy entertainment more than deeds today.
What is the trade-off between enjoying excellence in physical competition and being obsessed with nonsensical games?
Are professional sports a modern version of the Roman Empire’s bread and circuses?
We all know that elevating any form of entertainment above its proper place is idolatry. “Sports Bros” and “Grill Americans” are too comfortable with their athletic seasonal affective disorder (ASAD) — when their passions vary from one season to the next. Our sports media loves to lionize some heroes from these teams while ridiculing political opponents and our history.
We go from football season to basketball and hockey season to spring training and baseball season; with some golf and tennis in the summer, you can throw in a soccer match on the pitch or Olympics highlights, and then into summer camp and back to football season. Over and over and over again, we ride the highs and lows of our favorite teams and players. Our illustrious sports media keeps you updated and offended throughout the year. In many cities, sports are the main shared experience that transcends political party and faith.
But do you know who fits that narrative? Athletes. We can't seem to build statues fast enough for them. In the NBA, statues have become a symbol of legacy. Having a retired jersey, a championship banner, or a championship ring is no longer enough. Now, bronze figures for these men in our cities are required. Michael Jordan has one. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has one. Magic Johnson, Kobe Bryant, Larry Bird, Dwyane Wade - they all have statues. And LeBron James will undoubtedly get one, too.
Now, it is not that these athletes do not deserve recognition. They are incredible at what they do, and they bring joy to millions of fans across the country. But when did we start valuing slapshots and slam dunks over the very foundations of our nation?
We've lost sight of what truly matters. We've become so caught up in the glitz and glamour of sports that we've forgotten the values that made this country great. We've substituted championships for true merit and contribution.
It's time we take a step back and reevaluate our priorities. It's time to celebrate the real heroes again, the men and women who fought for our freedom, who shaped our history, and who made us who we are today. Even people in our history that we disagree with deserve to be remembered as part of local and regional heritage. It's time we start teaching our children what truly matters before it's too late.
We have substituted a faulty version of athletic achievement for respect, reputation, and accomplishment. Many of us grew up playing these sports. Many of our kids are fully committed to an athletic pursuit that provides incredible benefits. Some may have unrealistic expectations of future gains. Some men vicariously experience life through their children, and other men wearing tights on a television screen. This presents a number of problems in our culture. However, a recent conversation highlights to me the way that athletics, war, and art reveal the heart of the nation. When sports commentators on ESPN talk about Kevin Durant being traded back to the Oklahoma City Thunder, the team that he ostensibly was drafted by, technically it was the Seattle Supersonics at the time, in order to win a championship and get a statue – we’ve gone too far.
This merry-go-round has become more entrancing over the last few decades as our culture no longer truly celebrates merit and greatness. We may make overtures toward success and wealth as proxies for greatness. But we are more likely to disparage the Great Men of history and ridicule leaders today than celebrate them. The cultural breakdown of institutions and admiration began in the 1960s with an era of doubt and skepticism. The Vietnam War sealed our fate, increasing the perception of a declining military prowess. We’ve seen the rise of commandos who write books and make podcasts in the internet age post 9/11, but these men are not viewed as role models by and large. Is this the last gasp of the warrior spirit in America?
The political clown show that's been in the headlines about the military renaming bases has overwhelmed our better judgment. SecDef Hegseth returned traditional names of military bases in some cases using cunning workarounds such as renaming Fort Bragg. But something much deeper, something that cuts to the very core of who we are as Americans, has taken place in our country. We are lulled to sleep with a Siren song of sports that has replaced our sense of duty and honor.
When did we decide that winning a championship was worth more than leading a nation or fighting for our freedom?
We used to celebrate true heroes. We built statues to honor the brave men and women who fought for our country, who shaped our history, and who made us who we are today. But now, those statues have been torn down and erased from existence, all in the name of political correctness and protests following the George Flyod riots of 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns. Part of wokeness is the culmination of revisionist history that started with redefining words and now is attempting to control our history. This does not stop with just some statues. As George Orwell wrote, “Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past.”
Richmond, Virginia, once boasted a street lined with statues of Confederate soldiers. We can argue the value of representing these men, but we cannot deny the existence of this history. Those statues were a testament to the bravery and sacrifice of those men, regardless of which side of the war they fought on. Going to the Confederate Museum and other memorials in the city is a stark reminder of the vicissitudes of history. And our history includes trials and tribulations. “And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not (Deuteronomy 8:2).” Statues in Richmond are gone now, wiped from the face of the earth because some people decided they were offensive.
And it's not just Confederate soldiers; over 200 memorials have been removed since 2020. Statues of Christopher Columbus, Thomas Jefferson, and even one of Reverend George Whitefield at the University of Pennsylvania were defaced, destroyed, or removed altogether. Why? Because they don't fit the narrative. Because they don't align with the politically correct agenda that's been forced down our throats. And so, a fractured nation stood at a crossroads, locked in a fevered debate that pulsed through Jacksonville’s Springfield Park—where a Confederate monument vanished—and Alexandria, Virginia, where a 131-year-old Civil War soldier statue bid farewell to its post.
In the wake of the George Floyd protests, a tempest of racial reckoning swept across the United States, toppling monuments like dominoes in a grand, chaotic cascade. Confederate statues, those weathered sentinels of a bygone rebellion, bore the brunt of the fury—vandalized, torn asunder, or carted off by cities and states eager to shed their tarnished past. In Richmond, Virginia, the stoic figures of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson crumbled from their pedestals. The Southern Poverty Law Center clocked over 160 Confederate symbols vanishing in 2020 alone, while CNN counted 73 monuments removed or rechristened in 2021. Even the Pentagon joined the fray, with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin issuing a 2022 edict to scrub Confederate names from U.S. military bases—a seismic shift echoing across The South.
But the purge didn’t stop at the Mason-Dixon Line or the ghosts of the Confederacy—it sprawled outward, ensnaring a rogue’s gallery of historical figures tethered to racism, colonialism, or the sin of slavery. Christopher Columbus's statue fell like a sacrificial idol, beheaded in Boston by protesters’ self-righteous hands before being hauled away. While in Albuquerque, the conquistador Juan de Oñate was unceremoniously dethroned. The net widened to snag Junípero Serra, Kit Carson, and even Founding Fathers like Thomas Jefferson and George Washington, their bronze effigies defaced or dismantled for their roles as slave owners. In Albany, New York, Maj. Gen. Philip Schuyler’s statue met its end, as did Francis Scott Key’s alongside Ulysses S. Grant—whose own complex legacy couldn’t shield him from the reckoning. Stranger still, statues unmoored from slavery or the Confederacy found themselves caught in the crossfire, collateral damage in a cultural purge that spared little.
We used to celebrate generals and soldiers. Now, we cheer for superstars and quarterbacks. It is time to restore a sense of our own history and return memorials. “Remember the days of old; consider the years of many generations; ask your father, and he will show you, your elders, and they will tell you (Deuteronomy 32:7).” We need a sense of perspective when it comes to what we elevate in our social imaginary. Athletes cannot become our only heroes. Men who acted heroically, even in a lost cause, must be remembered. We need to find a way to recognize more heroes from the more recent past, such as World War II and even The Cold War, or those who made the ultimate sacrifice in the War on Islamic Terrorism.