We have a statue of St. Francis in our flower garden. So far no one has attempted to topple it.
Even the bear cub—during its midnight rampage a few weeks ago—left St. Francis standing despite toppling two trashcans on one side of the statue and tearing down two bird feeders on the other side.
What can I say? Everybody loves St. Francis. The same can’t be said of Robert E. Lee, Columbus, or the Golden Calf.
I hadn’t given statues much thought, but when I did I couldn’t help thinking of the Golden Calf and Moses’ rampage against it. He tore it down.
Moses hadn’t been gone but a few days when his people blatantly violated the Second Commandment. Make no graven images.
Which makes you wonder what our compatriots in the Bible Belt were thinking when they installed hundreds of graven images. Don’t they read the Bible?
(When my evangelical friends tell me that the Bible is the Word of God, I have to ask them: Really? Have you ever read it?)
Anyway, all these pious people who want to post the Ten Commandments in courthouses and public places had better read the blessed list first.
Sabbath observance alone would eliminate Sunday football and NASCAR. The prohibition against killing would eliminate war and capital punishment. The adultery clause—punishable by stoning to death—would eliminate many judges, lawmakers, and at least one president.
Our Bible Belt compatriots revere the Second Amendment. The Second Commandment, not so much.
Moses might have been the first iconoclast, but he wasn’t the last.
Sixteenth-century Protestants demolished thousands of Catholic icons and statues in the name of righteousness. It wasn’t the statues themselves that were odious. It was the values they represented and enshrined.
These days moral absolutism drives a lot of people. I’m all for righteous causes, but I find self-righteous people unbearable. (God save me from your people!)
Even our hungry, prowling bear cub was discriminating. You don’t have to destroy everything just because you’re hungry.
Beware what you idolize. Especially your own truth.
Knowledge increases. Values evolve. Circumstances change.
This is no time to revere icons of genocide, treason and White supremacy. Now is the time to repent and make amends.
We need a statue to humility.
Until then, I say, tear ’em all down. Except two.
St. Francis in my garden.
And Mr. Bojangles in Richmond.
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Check out Paula’s photograph (Perseids) on the home page.
Great post! Thanks.
Bravo! I will never forget my mom cursing all the Confederate statues on Monument Avenue in Richmond. This was the late 1940s. I wish she were alive today to see them all come down.
I’m glad to see odious statues and titles going down. America has always had such potential. If we can acknowledge the cancer of racism and our history of genocide, and change our practices, we can become a true, purer beacon to the world.
The City of San Jose, sincerely trying to do the right thing in the late nineties, put up a statue of Quetzalcoatl (look him up) in one of its small downtown parks. It was supposed to be a coiled, dark brown snake. It actually looked like a large pile of dog poop. The citizens laughed; the City officials did not. Not sure where the thing is housed now.
So much for statues….
Good post. My view is that it’s unwise to idolize people as we do when erecting monuments to them. The ones who deserve it (Lincoln? FDR?) wouldn’t have wanted it. I also oppose mobs tearing anything down. It means so much more if the city or whatever that owns the statue arrives at a considered decision to mothball it or give it away. Stonewall Jackson, Columbus, and Jefferson are dead; public spaces are for the living. More room for trees?
I agree with most of what you say in this piece. But why not change our interpretation of what statues, monuments and graven images mean.
What if we believe that they are not there to celebrate war, slave owners or explorers who exploit. Rather they should be kept as reminders of these atrocities and to honor those exploited at their hands.
We keep battlefields sacred, some say to honor the fallen. However, I view them as a reminder of how horrific war is.
You don’t have to change the physical view by tearing down statues and monuments, just change your personal view and work hard to ensure that the actions of these graven images aren’t repeated.
This got me to thinking….what graven images, at least here in the States, would I defend with my life, not for the clay they’re made of but for the spirit they embody? I thought of several candidates, but finally only one: the Statue of Liberty. I’d fight for that.
Cathleen Allen eloquently stated what I have to say on the matter.
May Ms. Liberty stand forever! And likewise the beautiful Perseids.
Winchester, VA, has a statue of polar explorer Admiral Richard Byrd (a native son) in front of their courthouse. Either the sculptor was naive or wanted to make fun of Byrd because the statue shows Byrd’s dog in an undignified pose on the admiral’s leg. When I worked in Winchester I often heard people laugh about “Admiral Byrd and Humpy, his dog.” So much for statues!