I'd say the Denver Post's publication of Mr. Beeler's cartoon is indeed fostering debate.
Some people might feel the only difference between 1,000-year-old Buddha statues or 2,000-year-old Palmyra ruins and Confederate statues is their age, and distance from us.
Some Muslims might argue that the Buddha statues and the Palmyra ruins are an affront to Islam's monotheistic roots. "There is no God but Allah".
I don't know of any Confederate statues that have been dynamited or bulldozed, but I believe a group of protesters engaged in at least one unauthorized pulling down of a Confederate statue, damaging it in the process.
I'm the son of German-Jewish parents. I can't erase Hitler. I don't want to erase Hitler from the history books. I want people to learn about Hitler and the Nazi atrocities.
People should learn about slavery, about Jim Crow, about lynchings.
There aren't Hitler statues in German public spaces. Perhaps these Confederate statues can be moved to private parks or museums.