There are many painful things in history. When we go into a class and start reading our textbooks for our assignments, we are getting a story about who we are as a people. This is very important part of being a citizen in this country. Learning from history allows us to gain new perspectives on life and its important that we continue educating ourselves on the history of our ancestors.
In Greece, learning history is even more important. The people who live there are sitting on thousands of years of history and they are very confident in their ability to traverse the murky waters of this global era, where identities seem to be sold at highest bidder for some multi-national corporation to use.
Take for example the White Tower in Thessaloniki, generally considered to be the second city of Greece.
This article by GreekReporter.com details the history of the white tower and the painful history that is attached to it. Apparently, the Turks built the current structure on top of a Byzantine fortification. Many of the locals through the centuries of Turkish occupation, called it the Red Tower, due to the many tortures that happened there.
Another wrinkle to this story is that that the tower’s signature color, white, has not necessarily been its color when Greece regained control of Thessaloniki in 1912. There are stories that relate to how the Kingdom of Greece painted the tower white in order to reclaim the tower as being part of Greece and to distant themselves from Turkish rule. Another story is that the Turks painted it white in the 19th century, in order to white wash the history of the monument.
Whatever the truth may be, the Greeks have turned the tower into a museum. Rather than tearing things down, like we do in the United States, the Greeks have sought to integrate it into their national story.
Americans are a young people compared to the Greeks. The modern day Greeks have plenty of history that is right outdoors, from temples to churches to the great Parthenon on the top of the Acropolis in Athens. Americans would do well to learn something from the Greek experience. We are all too keen to engage in cancel culture when it suits us. We should learn from history not to cancel it. The Greeks had every opportunity to destroy the tower but instead decided to use it as part of their history. Americans should heed the example of the Greeks.
Byzantine-Empire.com 