Regardless, the picture I saw what that of a crowd of people clapping and cheering as a statue was roped and pulled down from its pedestal. This was in Durham, NC, and the figure was Stonewall Jackson, and I was offended.
How does anyone have the right to tear down a statue put up to commemorate an event or a person, regardless? If a town or city, through its duly elected representatives deemed something that important, how do people think that they can act on their own and tear it down?
It seems to me that all they are doing is tearing down the rule of law.
Surely if a statue can be put up with the approval of a governmental body, it can also be taken down by that same body through the process of laws and ordinances. It may be a newly elected body, replaced by the voters, but is that not the way it works in civilized society?
Perhaps it was the behavior of the crowd that sickened me so. Not only tearing down the man on the horse and letting it crash to the ground and break up, but then spitting on it, kicking it, like bullies taunting a helpless creature, while their compatriots cheered and laughed.
The were, in effect, doing those things to the rule of law, a lawless part of our own society doing what they wanted, not what was right, or just, or honorable.
The mob had their own "rights", the right to do what they wanted, what was "right" in their own eyes.
This is probably just the ramblings of an old man, but it seems to me that the fabric of our country is in danger of being ripped apart, and as the statues are thrown down to the ground, so will be our foundations, foundations of law and order, of Constitutions, of Freedoms.
Unpunished mob rule will do that to us...
My oldest son, with his wife and dog, are making their way by car, back toward NC after being in CA for a couple of months. I texted him yesterday suggesting that he stop in some small county seats along the way and photograph courthouses. He probably smiled and continued to plan his route.
And maybe, my thinking is colored by all the small towns in Georgia that we traveled to and from, but those towns had the feel of a stable and honorable society, a society that believed in God and country, and believed in the structures of law.
And I probably idealized those towns and their people, but that is just how it seemed on the surface.
Their monuments to events and people of the past, are just that, monuments to historical happenings. All our people need to know their history, so that we may not have to repeat it, or worse yet, have the government tell us what parts we need to know or forget.
If I offended anyone, please forgive me, I'm just old..
God Help Us, Please
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