IN response to John Fannon: This monument to slavery’s abolition must not be overshadowed, Barry Sheridan wrote:
That the world should continue to reflect on man’s inhumanity is fully justified, which of course includes the Holocaust as well as slavery and all the other actions to which all races and cultures share collective guilt.
The Buxton Memorial Fountain recalls those who led this nation to conquer its own contribution to man’s indifference to his fellows. Britain has good reason to honour those who led this difficult campaign, it being worthy to note we went on to give lives and treasure to bring an end to the international trading of people. Seeding as we did so the ideal that no man is another man’s slave in cultures that had for centuries never considered this a moral question.
The only memorial the Holocaust needs is for the knowledge of it to persist. Instead of a showy something, let us acknowledge it in our hearts, committing to ensure we do not repeat this dreadful crime.