Robert E. Lee and their badass ways

I have always thought it a shame that people of every civilisation rip up their past at various points in their life by destroying  works of art which symbolise everything which they hate. 

I can certainly understand it though. I wish I could rip up bits of my own past but that is not possible. Though I live with all my ugly hateful bits from my past I am not ruled by them. They are just part of my past history, my whole life.

As a creative man, (white) I deeply regret that so many equestrian statues will be sawed off and sent to bronze foundries to be recycled into the next set of heroes who might get their own 15 minutes of fame.

I am irrelevant in these debates. The mob will rule as it always has throughout history. Wonderful things are ransacked and destroyed in the name of moral justice. The French revolution performed with surgical precision the decapitation of so many chateaux and churches which we collectively mourn, still today. And the Louvre is full of loathsome scoundrels. 

Wasn't it in San Francisco where they recently wanted to destroy a mural because it depicted George Washington and native Americans? Wasn’t it because it hurt people’s feeling causing emotional distress? In the end that saga was resolved by a compromise of sorts because the grown-ups finally showed up.

But to the point, in this case the equestrian statue of Robert E. Lee is the next target. I would only ask that it not be removed but left in its place with a placard at its base which explains the historical truth behind this man who sits atop this fine looking horse of bronze. I would hope that it be used to placate this generation, and perhaps to educate future generations in order that we can all understand the context behind which this statue remains. Maybe we can become a little wiser to our histories as a whole, in all their big bad-ass ways. 

America has changed but not enough, because it has never looked at itself, warts and all. Until we do we are condemned to a mindset of stupidity and shortsightedness. As they say 'the fish rots from the top’.