CONSTITUTIONAL CONVERSATIONS
In Defense of the Monuments
by
M. E. Boyd, Esq., “Miss Constitution”
Miss Constitution has posited that the United States Constitution and the emergence of a number of high-quality individuals can lead us out of the mess we have gotten ourselves into. The current cultural crisis is of our own making. It is not the result of conquest by a greater power in war or a greater idea for statecraft, it is the result of inattention, of a failure to pass on to each generation what constitutes the elements of our civilization and indeed all Western Civilization, a type of intellectual laziness. It is undergirded by the same thought process that says that children can raise themselves without moral guidance and will somehow turn out alright. Miss Constitution does not want to name names or place blame on an individual or individuals that represent part of our current problem because that will sow division and defensiveness. We are all to blame including Miss Constitution.
We are experiencing another historic moment of ICONOCLASM, or the tearing down of the symbols of our culture in the form of monuments, books, and movies. Miss Constitution wants to take you back, very briefly, into history, to remind you that humanity has travelled down this path before with disastrous results that we know and with disastrous results we can’t know because the records were destroyed. You will recall the iconoclastic period in the Eastern Roman Empire (7th and 8th centuries) that sought to destroy the images used as intermediaries to Christ for early Christians. You will recall that Henry VIII (1536) after the English Reformation disbanded the monasteries and looted all the treasures of the Catholic Church, destroying its libraries of priceless and irreplaceable documents, books, records, and early Christian music. You will recall that the Germans in WWI invaded the Belgium town of Leuven and destroyed its famous library. It was called by our press, “Treason to Civilization.” It has not been that long ago that the Taliban destroyed priceless historic relics.
Here we are again. Unable to make intellectual arguments open to discussion the thoughtless and the deliberate are taking concrete steps to erase our civilization right before our eyes. Miss Constitution hears nothing from those we have given much of our treasure and respect to who hold the knowledge and history in their hands and in whom we have placed our collective trust. There is not one and one reason only why we honor certain persons in certain times of our history with paintings and statues. Sometimes it is rather local, meaning that a particular event impacted a community with such devastation that a memorial of some kind provided comfort to its citizens. This is especially true at times of war. It is especially true of WWI. Sometimes it is a particular idea that captures an era’s attention and serves as a community binder and healer. Washington DC has traffic circles with monuments of all kinds depicting authors, philosophers, statesmen, and poets.
Human beings, we have discovered over time, respond to and are inspired by other human beings who rise above the normal failings we all have and deliver something special to future generations. George Washington, as first President of the United States, could have declared himself a type of king. He could have announced that he was President for life, and he could have capitalized on the near hero-worship all who knew him embraced. Instead, he followed the new United States Constitution faithfully. He declined more than two terms as President. He allowed Jefferson and Hamilton room to engage their gifted intellects in opposite directions so he could weigh the correct course for the nation.
Not one of those persons whose statues have been destroyed is a perfect person. They were chosen for memorial for a reason that should be explored and explained by intellectually honest historians and looked at in the context of the times. New ideas might call for new honorifics. New ideas are measured by old ones similar to growth lines of a child drawn on the doorway by adoring parents. One of the worst aspects of the timeless nature of human beings is their tendency to wipe out what is not current. The Ottoman Empire tried to wipe out medieval Christianity. Henry VIII tried to wipe out the Catholic Church and replace it with a “new” Protestant version. The Germans, in their attempt to be taken seriously, adopted a theory of terror by Karl von Clausewitz that knew no bounds of inhumanity and cultural destruction.
Miss Constitution stands in defense of the monuments, of the paintings, of the literature, of the music, of the books, of the film, of the poetry, of the language, of the museums, of the galleries, of the beautiful churches and synagogues and mosques and all other priceless remembrances of flesh and blood people who lived imperfectly but had something precious to give to our civilization. Current thought has anything involving the Confederacy as a target to be destroyed. Perhaps memorializing some southern citizens who fought to secede from the United States was one way to bind the wounds of a nation at war with itself. One would have to research to find out. This in no way supports any now-discarded views of those memorialized it only points to a critical moment in our history.
Miss Constitution stands against the iconoclasts and the ungrateful and the spoiled and the violent and the cowardly and the disloyal. Our journey as a nation towards wisdom and virtue hand in hand with one of the great pieces of statecraft, the United States Constitution, is a gift to the ages. She hopes that the heroes we need now will emerge. If our civilization is saved, perhaps they will become the statues of the future.
Copyright©2020 by M. E. Boyd, “Miss Constitution”
