Yoda Wasn't Woke

The public wants work which flatters its illusions.

― Gustave Flaubert 

While local governments assist, privileged Whites around the country are helping angry Blacks destroy and deface public sculptures.

A kid endorsing the desecration commented on my Facebook stream, "Time to write our own history."

The youth in me agrees; the codger cringes. 

"The evil that is in the world almost always comes of ignorance," Camus said. "Good intentions may do as much harm as malevolence if they lack understanding."

I'm noticing a lot of ignorance.

For example, in San Francisco this week, protesters toppled statues of Francis Scott Key and Ulysses Grant. 

History tells us Key held slaves; Grant did not. In fact, Grant played a part in slaves' emancipation; a bit part, anyway.

At this rate, the next statues in San Francisco to come down will be those of Lincoln, Gandhi, Cervantes, Beethoven, Tony Bennett and Harvey Milk. And, oh―lest we forget―Yoda. 

It seems Yoda wasn't woke.

On the East Coast this week, in Washington, DC, protesters toppled the statue of Albert Pike and attempted to topple the statue of Andrew Jackson (until police pepper-sprayed them).

While disquieting, these acts make sense.

Pike―although an advocate for Native American rights―was a racist Know-Nothing and unreconstructed Confederate. Jackson was a slaveholder and advocate for the expulsion of Native Americans.

And in New York City, the government announced it will remove a statue of Teddy Roosevelt, another disquieting act that makes sense.

The statue depicts Roosevelt on horseback, flanked by two guides, one Native American, the other Black. Although he advocated for Native American rights and owned no slaves―he was four the year the Emancipation Proclamation was issued―Roosevelt indeed was a racist.

As great-grandson Teddy Roosevelt IV eloquently said, “The world does not need statues, relics of another age, that reflect neither the values of the person they intend to honor nor the values of equality and justice."

But, sorry, I prize many "relics of another age"―even many that trigger. 

I'd no sooner topple Francis, Ulysses, Albert, Andrew or Teddy than I'd topple Lady Liberty―even though she stands for sexism, industrialism, imperialism, anthropocentrism, colonialism and capitalism.

Call me an antiquarian, but I like civilization.