I’ve had occasion to rethink the enthusiasm I expressed in my Wednesday column for the summary tearing down of statues on public land that honor the Confederacy.
I found the sight of protesters in Durham, N.C., using a rope Monday to pull down the Confederate Soldiers Monument exhilarating, an act of vandalism justified by the insult inherent in erecting the statue in the first place. No worse than dousing a flaming cross.
But many readers from across the political spectrum wrote to express thoughtful disagreement with this tactic. Even those who are sickened by the honors conferred upon the traitors who tried to rip our nation apart to defend slavery in the 1860s and cost more than half a million Americans their lives argued against vigilantism in response.
We have laws. There’s a process. Mob rule is an uncontrollable monster once unleashed.
Fair points. They have dampened my enthusiasm. Those of us who want to see those statues and other tributes to sedition and human bondage moved into museums should first petition local governments.
If and when that fails is the time to debate the merits of civil disobedience.
