Is our historical past something to be ashamed of?

We're still hearing about the removal of historical monuments/symbols and names of historical persons from everything from locations of the historical event, buildings, to social events. Is this going to make anything better? Erasing the historical past can have a negative result. By failing to learn from our past and preserving that memory we are creating the situation where the past may be repeated. None of this is going to stop or change racism. Racism is not born from a site, symbol or name, it is born from being taught to hate. It starts early at home. Even if erasing history would make the world a better place it is a bad idea because history is the story of life, of human development. Nothing that we human beings ever do is going to be perfect and mistakes will continue to be made. Hind sight is always 20/20. http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/flashback-friday-reagan-erasing-history-will-erode-american-spirit

I was inspired to write this after reading an article in which there was a statement referring to America's "shameful 200 year history". Reading this aggravated me. Our country has struggled through a lot of difficulties, difficulties that should make us stronger, more capable and proud. Mistakes were made, corrections were made and our nation survived.