Short Takes

What do you do when you don’t have any Confederates to protest? You obviously make do with what you have. Two in the crosshairs are Teddy Roosevelt and of course Christopher Columbus.

“For too long, they have generated harm and offense as expressions of white supremacy,” reads the petition, in a city which “preaches tolerance and equity”

Signed by 500 people in a city of over 8 million, so I suppose that settles it. Once again, you see this primitive notion (espoused by intellectuals, of course) that graven images somehow “generate” harm by their very presence.

Meanwhile, Notre Dame students are also after Columbus, and hung a nasty banner in the library.

But don’t worry about comrade Lenin. He’s doing just fine.

Meanwhile back here in Asheville the birthplace of Zebulon Vance, North Carolina’s Civil War governor, has been vandalized with spray paint, as has his monument downtown. I reported previously that the Robert E. Lee plaque had been vandalized also. The perps were caught and charged, but let off with a slap on the wrist. The charges were dropped for “community service,” which will of course signal a culture of impunity for further vandalism.

Neel Lattimore, director of communications at the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, said a restoration expert will be brought in “very quickly” to remove the paint.

“It’s unfortunate,” he said. “Vandalism is a cowardly way to express anyone’s First Amendment rights. It’s certainly a shame that they just chose to do this type of vandalism in the dark when they can stand up and speak words.

“But they chose vandalism. That makes me sad.”

Vance also is honored with a more than 120-year-old downtown Asheville monument, which was vandalized in June 2015 when someone spray-painted “Black Lives Matter” on the monument.

The words were spray-painted on the monument again in January 2016; that time, they were accompanied with a painted noose.

And finally, on a lighter note, a meld of 19th Century and 21st Century technology—a muzzle-loading black powder AR-15 rifle. Yes, you read that right.

Update: Memphis has removed those harmful, offensive statues of Nathan Bedford Forest and Jeff Davis from its ground, by means of a legal slight of hand. The parks containing the monuments were “sold” to a private firm, who then quickly removed them. Apparently there was no public discussion or notice. The Tennessee legislature isn’t pleased with it, either.