It was a bit of a shock to see the Confederate monument in Harrington Square defaced on Saturday morning, even though there’s been a high likelihood of this happening over the last several months.
City government and the community as a whole had, for all intents and purposes, finished the conversation on the fate of the monument: it will be taken off of public property and put on display at the Richmond County Veterans Memorial Park. There have been more than enough social media fights about it, along with several local Black Lives Matter demonstrations.
But this perpetrator, who has yet to be identified or charged with any crime, apparently wanted to get the last word on the monument before it got moved to its new home, a process that was set in motion in part due to the persistence of a group of young activists who took the proper avenues to address the issue with their government.
Several of those activists were quick to distance themselves from the actions of this person. Maggi Chambers, who was among those who demonstrated in front of the monument and who submitted a letter to the City Council calling for it to be removed, commented to the Daily Journal, “Myself and the other organizers do not condone this at all. All of our demands have been met, all of the protesters are back in school, the city is being cooperative, and we have nothing to gain from defacing the monument.”
Thankfully, city staff were able to make quick work of the cleanup. The cost of the damage isn’t known, but City Manager Monty Crump said it was only a couple hours of labor.
This act, which the city had hoped they could avoid by moving the monument, and any other that someone may wish to do to the monument, is at this point beating a dead horse. If this perpetrator felt like they hadn’t gotten to say their piece yet, the time for that was months ago.
Local social media feeds have been rife with pronouncements of the monument’s connections to white supremacy, and this newspaper’s coverage has reflected this as well — spray paint isn’t needed to drive that point home. Selfish displays of this nature do nothing but a disservice to the point they are trying to make, and only serve to further entrench people in their viewpoints when the goal should be to change minds.
As it stands, those who want to view the monument will easily be able to do so and those who don’t want to see the monument will easily be able to bypass it. This is a compromise that is worthy of celebration.
