'I think if history offends people it needs to be rewritten if possible'

So says Wellborn Adams, mayor of Greenwood, S.C.

On Greenwood city property is a memorial to local men who died in two world wars, Korea and Vietnam. The dead from the world wars are divided into “white” and “colored.” The mayor decided to change the memorial, listing all by war, but not dividing the world war dead by race. He ran into a little problem. South Carolina law prohibits changing historical monuments. Of equal opposition, many historians said changing the monument would be an attempt at changing history.

Of course, when opposition raised its commonsense head, the mayor decided what he said was not what he meant.

“The mayor acknowledged he didn't choose his words carefully. He later said he meant that while history doesn't change, the way a community presents itself does.”

http://www.military.com/daily-news/2015/02/07/war-memorial-separates-dead-by-race-divides-southern-city.html?ESRC=army-a.nl

(A guess: The mayor is embarrassed by his city’s past and wanted to ease his embarrassment by removing the offending monument. Mr. Mayor: History is not always pretty, but it is history. And, the story does not support the headline part about "divides Southern city.")