History is full of folks who had to "take a turn in the barrel". Let's not judge things that happened centuries ago with the lens of the twenty-first century. Our progeny I'm sure will look back and cringe at some of the barbaric things we do. What are they? Don't know. We don't consider them barbaric.

Anyhow, I'm all for celebrating the accomplishments of historic people, even if they were flawed. If we chose only the perfect ones, we'd have no Holidays other than Christmas and Easter. Personally, I like more than two holidays a year.