Smashing Statues

Adult nonfiction 

     "I am an art historian.  I have spent years studying the deliberate destruction of art as a tool of intimidation, war, and genocide.  But I do not think that every monument deserves to exist forever.  Societies change and their monuments change too.  Sometimes destruction is the form this change needs to take."

     Most of the time about the only beings who take much notice of statues are pooping pigeons.  I know I ride and walk by them usually without any thought.  The only exception was when I was taking my adviser's assessment class and assessing anything quantifiable.  On one of Eugene's daylong road trips I classified every statue we passed.  You guessed it.  The vast majority were white featured males holding guns, often astride equally masculine horses.  But the rest of the time I don't give much bandwidth to them.  

     However, in the life times of just about anyone old enough to be reading this blog there have been events egregious enough to inspire people to try to take down statues glorifying racists.  In 2015 Dylan Roof killed nine Black worshippers in cold blood in their own church.  In 2017 during an event dubbed Unite the Right legions of torch bearing white supremacists terrorized Charlottesville and one drove his car into a group of unarmed people.  In 2020 Derek Chauvin knelt on George Floyd's neck, deliberately asphyxiating him.  Most of us were clued in on the statue smashing by the news or social media.  Reactions tended to take three forms: Yasss!  About time!; OMG! Those criminals!; and Why bother? Nothing's going to change.

     Erin L. Thompson, author of Smashing Statues: The Rise and Fall of America's Public Monuments, would warn us against either ignoring statues or failing to move beyond gut reactions.  Public monuments convey the values, some covert as well as more obvious, of the people who erected them.  They continue to convey messages, some very harmful today.  It's crucial for us to really understand a statue's backstory in order to deal with it today.

     Don't get me wrong.  Smashing Statues is not the kind of dull as dirt (sorry, Erin) information that has some of about as eager to take an art history class as we are to have oral surgery without benefit of anaesthesia.  The book is full of drama, conflict, and scams.  The solid epiphanies that give in depth knowledge of the values represented by public monuments both today and when they were erected are delivered in an engaging format.  In fact I was so fascinated by what I learned that I have to limit myself to my three favorite things to not exceed people's book review attention span.

     1)  The most obvious messages aren't the only ones statues were meant to convey.  Have you ever wondered why most of the statues glorifying the Civil War were erected decades after the weapons were put down.  The artists were also at that point portraying rank and file soldiers in poses of obedience rather than officers leading the troops into battle.  There's a reason for that.  The South was shifting into an industrial economy in which many whites were desperately poor and willing to be in unions with Blacks to earn enough to survive.  The industrialists of that time considered that dangerous to their own profits.  So through the statues of obedient, suffering foot soldiers they imbued suffering with nobility.

     "The more they suffered, the more pride they could take in their heritage.  But trying to escape their suffering by adopting a new approach to life, like one where white and black workers fought for fair wages together?  That would be as cowardly as deserting from the Confederate Army, doomed as it was."

     2)  A lot of monument financing was far from straightforward.  A lot of today's scammers could learn a thing or two from the con artists connected with the infamous Stone Mountain statues.  The sculptor, himself,  evaded creditors as he racked up more and more debt.  He even convinced the US Mint to create a fifty cent coin to commemorate the monument which was not complete.  He, of course would get a considerable share of the action when they were sold.

     3)  Sometimes the only possible way to remove egregious statutes is to tear them down.  There are laws that make removing statues legally impossible.  Wavers are nearly always impossible to obtain.  And lawsuits set in motion by families or organizations on behalf of statues remaining in place can drag through the courts for years, effectively preventing legal removals.

     Thompson has an important request to make of us.  She'd like us to learn as much about the statues in our neighborhoods using these guidelines:

"What does it mean?  What does it suggest?

What impression is it likely to make on those who view it?

What will be the effect on present-day problems, of its obvious and also of its insidious teachings?"

     If the answers to these questions point to harm being done she wants us to have the difficult questions that will lead our community to work toward harm reduction and justice.

On a purrrsonal note, I had a pretty good week.  Even my pre surgical appointment went better than I expected.  Eugene had to plow the night before.  He got home in time to drive me to the medical building.  He waited and then drove me to Goodwill and Hannaford.  I got baking supplies and a musical snow globe and a photo album that will be perfect for a bunch of the family photos I have stashed in a filing cabinet.  Eugene had left $40 wrapped around my smartphone.  So he paid for everything.  I also got a very exceptional doctor.  She asked questions to get to know who I really am rather than relying on stereotypes.  I thanked her for not being ageist.  She told me that she also started graduate school seriously later in life.  She said she's celebrating the fact that I'm strong and vibrant and pursuing the lifestyle that  brings me joy, purpose, and meaning rather than settling for what others tell me I should want.  That's for damb sure. (Jules)

My life has purrrpose.  Family cat is a sweet gig, especially in Maine winters.  (Tobago)

A great big shout out goes out to doctors who don't practice the implicit ageism that is sadly endemic in their profession.

Tobago and Jules Hathaway 

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