The events in Charlottesville have brought America's long history of racism and hate to the forefront of political discussion.

As much as we'd all like to say that racism is a problem of the past, recent protests have shown that, unfortunately, that is simply not the case. We as a country and as a society still have a long way ahead of us before we can truly put our past behind us and work for a better, more peaceful future. There are a lot of underlying issues that have caused such a display, and it's hard to talk about all of them.

That being said, I'd like to start with what essentially was the reason for the protests in Virginia: a desire to maintain Confederate monuments.

I would like to preface this article by saying that I respect and seek to understand the opinions of others. There are many strong thoughts and beliefs on this controversial issue, and these are simply mine. I welcome all other opinions and perspectives.

When it comes to any war, it is always difficult to commemorate the lives lost on the losing side. As much as it can be hard to put into perspective, these people were like any other people, fighting for what they believed to be a just cause while leaving behind friends, family, and loved ones in the process. In the Civil War, each Confederate life lost was still an American life lost.

According to National Park Services, 483,026 Confederate soldiers lost their lives. To put that into perspective, there were 418,500 total American casualties in World War II.

To turn a blind eye to the destruction of the Civil War, regardless of the side, would be an injustice. I see no problem with commemorating any life lost in the Civil War, so long as we remember the lessons and consequences that we must take away from it.

In other words, there is a way to remember Confederate lives lost without perpetuating and supporting the principles for which they fought.

With that in mind, I personally don't believe that the Confederate monuments in America are serving a righteous purpose. In this day and age, said monuments have come to symbolize support for the Confederate cause more so than to commemorate fallen soldiers, and hence have carried forth a violent and racist ideology.

As demonstrated in Charlottesville, there is still a massive regional conflict that stems from issues dating back far beyond and including the Civil War. The marchers demonstrated behaviors that, regardless of political beliefs, can only be seen for what they are: racist.

The fact that these white supremacists are so passionately protesting to keep these monuments should be a warning sign in and of itself. The people most fervid in keeping these monuments are also the ones that still carry principles and beliefs of the Confederacy itself, beliefs deeply committed to maintaining the slavery and racial hierarchy.

Therefore, for many, these monuments stand for the support of a dangerous ideology. Keeping these monuments would mean a victory for this ideology and those in support of it. By doing nothing at all, we are conceding to the very causes that we as a country fought the Civil War for in the first place.

One of the most popular counterarguments is the idea that taking down these monuments is, in a sense, erasing our history. However, there are many other ways to maintain our history without keeping these monuments, and other wars and outcomes have demonstrated this idea.

For example, in Germany, following World War II, swastikas and other Nazi symbols were made illegal. To this day anyone carrying or showing these symbols is subject to arrest.

However, this is not to say that the banning of these symbols has erased Germany's history and the history of World War II.

Last summer, I had the opportunity to visit Germany, and along the way, a concentration camp. The camp was essentially turned into a museum and memorial.

Different exhibits, photos, and memorabilia upheld the history of the Holocaust, while at the same time, condemned the ideology that brought it forth. At no point while walking through the concentration camp did I feel as though it was supporting what happened or the hatred that caused such horrific events to take place.

At the same time, I learned so much about Holocaust and World War II history. Such a display did not erase the events of history but served as means of learning from these events to prevent them from ever happening again.

In relation to the Confederate monuments in the United States, however, this is not necessarily the case. When it comes to the monuments, the lines are blurred in regards to who or what they are commemorating or supporting.

While some are less blatant than others, many of the monuments throughout the South blatantly demonstrate support for racist ideas and beliefs. One of many examples is the Battle of Liberty Place Memorial. The bottom of the memorial reads the following:

"United States troops took over the state government and reinstated the usurpers but the National Election November 1876 recognized white supremacy in the South and gave us our state."

This monument, clearly racist and offensive in its purpose, was only taken down in April of 2017. According to the mayor of the city, there was “intimidation and threats by people who don’t want the statues down."

Workers took the monument down after hours, wearing protection such as helmets and bulletproof vests. The Battle of Liberty Place monument and plenty of others like it are symbols of white supremacy, not a memorial for the victims or consequences of it.

Taking away these monuments is not erasing our history--it's part of erasing the racism and hatred that our country fought against and continues to fight against today.

If these statues or parts of them were preserved in museums as means of demonstrating the problems and wrongdoings of white supremacy and serving as learning tools from the Civil War, this would be a completely different conversation.

However, this is far from reality. White supremacists are continuing to cling to these monuments as means of clinging to their racist and harmful way of thinking. The problem is that these monuments are not helping us to commemorate our past, but instead, are holding onto the outdated and racist elements of our past.

Perhaps we could replace the presence of these monuments with memorials that, while recognizing lives lost, truly condemn the racism and hatred that caused the Civil War and show a clear desire to prevent such events from ever coming to the surface again.

Regardless, something has to be done, because doing nothing at all means a victory for a hateful ideology and those who support it. As said by Elie Wiesel, American-Romanian writer and political activist, "Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented."

Part of preserving our history means taking our history and learning from it. The Confederate monuments in our country need to be decisively and peacefully taken down in order to do just that.

"History happens twice because people don't listen at the first time."