Is Art Sacred?

Since the Charlottesville tragedy there has been a lot of talk about Confederate statues apparently strewn willy-nilly all over the South.  As I haven’t visited the South I don’t know about all that but I have to say I can smell bullshit from a mile away.  Here’s what I want to say about that, and I am really very sorry if I am wrong or offending folks but I am saying this from what I have seen and heard over my 64 years of living, never, until Charlottesville have I heard any black celebrity (or non-celebrity – but who hears those folks?) say “I am really intimidated when I walk by a statue of Robert E. Lee.  It makes me think of my ancestors and the slave days.” Or words to that effect.

Now even Whoopi Goldberg, a woman I really respect, says she has felt it.  I say bullshit.  I don’t think anything intimates Whoopi, for one thing, and if she did I’d like to know why she hasn’t spoken out about all those apparently endless statues in the South?

So that is part of what I want to ask / say.  The other part is this, statues that have been carved in stone or cast in iron are, in my opinion, works of art and I have a real problem with art being destroyed.  When I heard about ISIS blowing up ancient sculptures and works of art in the Middle East I was appalled.  I was irritated when folks in Nova Scotia wanted to take down Cornwallis’ statue because he had endorsed the scalping of Indians.  Why are our Aboriginal people suddenly talking about this political correctness now?  Why not create another statue and put it next to Cornwallis and tell the other side of the story?  Why are we whitewashing (sorry for the unintended pun) history?  Doesn’t this all smell a little like Nazi Germany? 

The other day I heard they were removing a Dr. Seuss exhibit that showed a Chinese person as a caricature type which is being denounced as racism.  I’m thinking, it was made in 1937 where lots of different cultures were harpooned by the WASP community.  Leslie Ford, the mystery writer, always referred to her cook as her “coloured cook” or her “coloured maid”; not just a maid.  Agatha Christie stereotyped Jews, Greeks, Swedes, and other cultures in a very WASP kind of way.  Ditto Georgette Heyer and others from that era.  Are we going to start burning or banning their books because they wrote how they saw things in the 1920’s or 30’s?  They don’t show westerns anymore because they kill a lot of Indians.  So we are supposed to forget that we had heinous ideas and practices because we want to sooth peoples’ feelings? 

I don’t get it.  I don’t understand why we have to suddenly ignore history.  I think it is too much political correctness and it is also too much about distracting us from the real issues of today.  Let’s talk about the FACTS, that things haven’t really changed and we have a total nut job in the White House and his cohorts in Congress and the Senate are not a lot better who seem to enjoy fanning flames of dissention.  It’s okay to own submachine guns but God forbid that a woman should have access to birth control or an abortion.  It’s okay to own guns but journalists should keep their mouths shut and just let the nut job tweet any sort of message he likes.  Let’s shutdown a sexual assault victim’s Twitter account because she’s speaking out about the abuse but let’s keep the nut job ranting about the other nut job over in North Korea.

Does any of this stuff make sense to you?  I may be wrong about what those statues represent to some folks but taking out a wrecking ball is not really the answer to what is going on in America, Canada and the rest of the world.  In this age of supposed communication no one seems to know how to talk in a rational, adult sort of way about the Real Stuff, what’s wrong in the world, how can we be civilized with each other?  How can we get to the point where we can Live and Let Live?  Why can’t we be different without offending the bloody crap of the next guy?

Well, this is a long ramble and again, I am sorry if I am offending folks but I am asking more questions than calling it like I see it.  I just want to know – what’s really going on with folks.  Because at the end of the day I believe most people just want to live their lives and be happy.  They don’t want confrontation.  Who needs it?