Old Virginia Weeps

Last week Governor Ralph Northam announced his plan to remove the iconic statue of Robert E. Lee from Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia. This step will be the beginning of an ambitious leftist Taliban undertaking that calls for the removal of four other statues of Confederate heroes, including that of Jefferson Davis. The now endangered statues have long been beloved tourist attractions that have given Richmond its cultural and historic profile.

The fashionable Virginia Pilot produced a giddily joyous editorial hailing the wrecking exercise as long overdue: “The move would be an extraordinary victory for civil rights activists, whose calls for the removal of that monument and others in this former capital of the Confederacy have been resisted for years.” Supposedly Northam’s decision was driven by the killing of George Floyd and the riots occasioned by that act:

We now understand “that some serious healing has to take place.” Supposedly tearing down historic statues will “heal” something, but I’ve no idea what that is.  The Virginia Legislative Black Caucus issued a statement on June 4 that “these structures and monumental symbols have been extremely offensive to Black America and others.” In the next sentence the statues are described as “so hurtful.”

Will the destruction of “these structures and monumental symbols” do anything to improve the life of a single black person? For example, how will it bring down the rate of violent crime among the black underclass in our inner cities?

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