Friday, July 03, 2020

My Weekend (Fourth of July) Crush

I can’t think of anything more All-American this Fourth of July weekend than tearing down a monument to a man who committed treason by leading the Confederate Army in an attempt to destroy the United States of America. The Robert. E. Lee Monument in Richmond Virginia was commissioned in 1876, close to a dozen years after the Civil War ended. Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam ordered its removal this month. But a court injunction was filed because losers can never let go of losing causes. But, while we wait, the site has become an incredible art piece about protest, resistance, equality, revolution and what we value as a nation. Images of George Floyd, Harriet Tubman, and Frederick Douglass – among others – have all been projected onto the monument to human enslavement and suffering. May it, and all the systematic institutions and policies which keep us from being truly equal and enjoying the full freedoms this country promises, come down soon. Happy safe, healthy and righteous Fourth of July weekend, all.



2 comments:

  1. Anonymous8:18 AM

    That is gorgeous and I feel like a permanent installation of this would be more powerful than tearing down the monuments.
    wallis

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