For the first part, yes it is crazy with the ripping down part. And I agry that there are some bad players mixed in all of this. But I don’t view it as a single mob. It is really a collection of a bunch of different groups with different agendas. And most of the agendas are peaceful and want democratic change to laws, funding and public policies. I wouldn’t doubt that some agitators are also purposefully escalating things (and some might even be backed by foreign governments just like we have done in other countries).

As for assessing people from the past, I personally think we should. Use Columbus as an example. We have a federal holiday for him and celebrate the discovery of America. Only he didn’t discover it and he was a terrible person who committed atrocities on the natives. And the same type of assessment applies to others when we look back and ask whether we should honor people. I know it can be a fine line at times. So for me it comes down to whether someone was associated with bad things or whether they actively participated in and supported bad things.

For the last part, I acknowledged that it was not just the US and that it is a much bigger global issue.