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| Stalin Monument in Prague, destroyed in l962 (photo: HZ) |
For Trump hath murdered conversation. That’s the problem.
You can’t discuss monuments anymore. If you talk about the fact that the
monument question is enormously complex, you run the risk of being associated
with the Trumpenproletariat. You’ve seen the footage of crowds tearing down the
statues of Stalin, Lenin, Hitler and Mussolini. Like these, many Confederate monuments were
put up in Jim Crow times with an admonitory intent. But what about the danger
of white washing history? And who was worse Lee or Sherman, considering Sherman's views towards Native Americans? Remember Santayana’s all too often quoted, “those
who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” And what about monuments which
exist on public lands that occupy more than l00,000 acres ("What is the Antiquities Act and Why Does President Trump Want to Change It" NYT, 4/26/17) Trump was against
all of those. What if there were a monument to Robert E. Lee or Stonewall Jackson, Washington or Jefferson (the four examples Trump cited) on
those lands? Would Trump order them to be taken down?
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