When I first saw a news item about a Charlotteville statue and a group protesting its removal, I didn't imagine how things would escalate.
There's no turning back the clock, but imo the decision to remove Robert E. Lee's statue was a mistake from the start. After all, many people commemorated in statues have caused death and destruction; should they all be taken down? If anything, in multi-cultural societies, we should be putting statues up and if people are uneasy about glorifying Robert E. Lee, wouldn't it have been better to strike a balance by adding a statue of Frederick Douglass or some local equivalent as well?
Sad and alarming on lots of levels, the spiral of violence in Charlotteville has also obscured the original issue.
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"Am I enjoying this moment? I know of it and perhaps that is enough." - Sybille Bedford, 1953
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