December 27, 2002 - 9:00 p.m.
As one Richmond journalist puts it, the devil must be ice skating.
It's difficult to find a place in Richmond that isn't in sight of some Civil War memorial or marker - or at least a sign pointing to one. One friend of northern extraction described Monument Avenue as the biggest collection of 2nd place trophies in the world. There was a huge to-do years ago when a statue of Arthur Ashe was erected there, though there has been little mention of it recently. There's a new one in the works for the Civil War Visitor Center - of President Lincoln.
The southern heritage groups are, predictably, fuming.
Personally, I don't see what the fuss is about. It's a statue of Lincoln and Tad sitting on a bench together, presumably resting as they tour the devastated city. Overall, it's kind of boring. I have no overwhelming distaste or admiration for Lincoln. The real test of his leadership, in Reconstruction, was lost in his assassination. Some say those terrible years would have been avoided had he lived, but I really haven't read enough to judge. My father takes a more jaded view of him - but not for Confederate sympathy. Dad has much harsher criticism of Jefferson Davis. And nearly everyone else. (I once asked Dad if there were any historical figure he did admire. He thought - a while. Finally he decided that George Washington was alright.) But, in a city with a long memory, Lincoln gets the blame for the hardships of the war. Ironically, the statue is aimed toward reconciliation, featuring the words "To bind up the nation's wounds" which, I believe, is a quote from Lincoln's second inaugural speech.
And Richmond could use some bandaids. It's my hometown and I love it and miss it, but good God the place can go crazy over history. On one side, there are those who want to exorcise any reference or image of Confederates from the modern culture, as punishment for their 19th century values and way of life. On the other, you have those who want to preserve and exhibit even the poorest choices of icons in the name of heritage. Neither tend to indulge rational discussion.
It's a fun town.
It's impossible to say if the Lincoln statue will ever get enough funding to become a reality, but it will certainly spark interesting commentary back home for a while. I do wish it were more interesting (in design), though. It just doesn't speak to me.
Were I ever to have the money, status, and wherewithal to choose a fitting memorial in Richmond, I would pick something more dramatic, like this incident described in National Geographic News:
One Sunday at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Richmond, a well-dressed, lone black man, whom no one in the community�white or black�had ever seen before, had attended the service, sitting unnoticed in the last pew.
Just before communion was to be distributed, he rose and proudly walked down the center aisle through the middle of the church where all could see him and approached the communion rail, where he knelt. The priest and the congregation were completely aghast and in total shock.
No one knew what to do�except General Lee. He went to the communion rail and knelt beside the black man and they received communion together�and then a steady flow of other church members followed the example he had set.
But then I'd have to deal with complaints about the separation of church and statues...
