RELICS

 

"King of Kings am I, Ozymandias. 

If anyone would know how great I am 

and where I lie, 

let him surpass one of my works."

 

" I was in Richmond two weeks ago giving a lecture. A woman came up afterward from New York or Boston, born and raised in the North, and she has just moved to Richmond. 

Oh, she’s just full of enthusiasm and she’s the cultural attaché director or something for the city of Richmond now. 

And I was speaking at this new museum about the Civil War and she came up to me and she said, “I want to know what you think of my idea. I think the first thing we need to do in Richmond is just tear down all those Confederate monuments.” 

I said, “Oh.” Oh dear. 

[Laughter] 

Oh dear. I didn’t even know what to tell her. 

She said, “If they can just take down that Robert E. Lee statue and then that Stonewall Jackson statute. Just take them down. Wouldn’t everything be all right?” 

I went over in the bookstore, I got her a copy of Race and Reunion, this book I did on Civil War memory, and I said, 

“Here ma’am, just start here.” 

[Laughter]