I had a Disney sing-along VHS that included "Everybody's Got a Laughin' Place." I remember being very confused when I was younger, because I recognized every other song and movie/clip in it ("I Love to Laugh" from Mary Poppins, "Ooh-de-Lally" from Robin Hood, "Pink Elephants on Parade" from Dumbo, etc.), but not that one. Still, it was a fun song.
When I got older and finally went to Disney and rode Splash Mountain, I was pretty excited, actually, to recognize the song and theming. Especially as my husband (boyfriend at the time) was like "I've been hearing this song in this ride for years and have no idea what it's from."
It wasn't until SEVERAL MORE years later that I found out it came from Song of the South. The theming is really quite removed from the movie.
While I think Disney can do what they want, and no real loss is incurred if they retheme Splash Mountain, I think it is in some ways silly and a large expense for nothing, and in others... do we really think scrubbing away pieces of this movie changes anything? It doesn't change that it was made. It doesn't change what it represents. In fact, it's kind of in poor taste that we try to shove it under the rug and pretend it didn't happen, because that renders no one accountable and closes the discussion.
When I was younger, I will never forget watching the old Looney Tunes WW2 propaganda cartoons. One had a little yellow gremlin sabotaging planes. I will also never forget my dad explaining to me what this represented (it was a slur for Japanese people) and that it was very wrong. He and my mom did this for numerous things in the old cartoons I watched (the "mammy" characters, the "coon" caricatures, etc.) and it opened a dialogue and taught me how to recognize those things myself and understand why they were wrong.
At the end of the day, kids going to Disney just want to ride a fun ride, and SM probably won't and doesn't need to open a dialogue about Song of the South, so as I said before, it isn't a real loss if they retheme it. But it does make one wonder how long before conversations like those I had with my parents just don't happen at all because it was all erased, and how quickly we forget....