Here are a couple of excerpts from T. S. Eliot, regarding how a society should deal with its past evils, as well as with affirming the good things inherited... "Of all that was done in the past, you eat the fruit, either rotten or ripe. And the Church must be forever building, and always decaying, and always being restored. For every ill deed in the past we suffer the consequence: For sloth, for avarice, gluttony, neglect of the Word of God. For pride, for lechery, treachery, for every act of sin. And of all that was done that was good, you have the inheritance. For good and ill deeds belong to a man alone, when he stands alone on the other side of death, But here upon earth you have the reward of the good and ill that was done by those who have gone before you. And all that is ill you may repair if you walk together in humble repentance, expiating the sins of your fathers;...