The controversy over Confederate memorials during the past several years raised our consciousness of the importance of knowing what our society honors and why.
We felt the power of physical markers to constrict our sense of the world and our own lives. Monuments must reflect not only our greatest aspirations but also reject our worst intentions.
For many Utahans, this controversy seemed a distant storm with few implications for our community. Although more quietly, we too have dealt with the issues that frame such debates. Recall in 2017, the changing of the name of “Negro” Bill’s Canyon near Moab to erase the race-based tag and remember African-American rancher William Grandstaff.