What to Do With Statues

Statues erected to glorify, in contrast to those created solely as expressions of art, are latter day extensions of primitive, religious idolatry. The ancients built and worshipped earthly representations of their imagined gods and gods, as we know, cannot have flaws.
My proposal; let our artists continue to sculpt forms that capture and convey the beauty and spirit of nature and humankind. Let us refrain from memorializing individuals by carving their likeness in stone or bronze. The attempt to eternalize and lionize figures of the past, with the hope of future notice and admiration, is bound to run afoul of historic fact and human frailty. Better that the stories of extraordinary personages be told by historians able to marshal and reveal facts, add perspective and contribute to the store of knowledge passed to successive generations.