Another day, another statue of a military hero is vandalized, this time down in New Orleans. The Big Easy's smartest folks spied out this figure astride a horse and vandalized it with the words "Tear It Down." Fair enough, I suppose.
Unfortunately, the figure on the horse wasn't Robert E. Lee or Thomas "Stonewall Jackson" or even that most reviled of Southerners, Nathan Bedford Forrest, founder of the Ku Klux Klan. No, this one actually hailed from the north. Of France, that is: ;-)
"The phrase "Tear it Down" was hastily sprayed in black paint across the base of the golden Joan of Arc statue on Decatur Street in the French Quarter sometime earlier this week. It has since been removed, with only the vaguest traces of the paint remaining.
The "Tear it Down" tag would seem to relate to the debate surrounding the city's ongoing removal of four Confederate monuments. But the statue of Joan of Arc, a 15th-century military leader, martyr and Catholic saint, hasn't been mentioned in the controversy to this point.
Amy Kirk Duvoisin, the founder of the annual Joan of Arc parade that ceremonially pauses at the statue on the first day of Carnival season, says she's confused by the vandalism.
"Surely, people realize she's not related to American history," she said referring to the French icon."
I wouldn't be too sure about that, ma'am.
Joan of Arc statue in French Quarter tagged with 'Tear It Down' graffiti | NOLA.com
"Politics is just show business for ugly people."
Unfortunately, the figure on the horse wasn't Robert E. Lee or Thomas "Stonewall Jackson" or even that most reviled of Southerners, Nathan Bedford Forrest, founder of the Ku Klux Klan. No, this one actually hailed from the north. Of France, that is: ;-)
"The phrase "Tear it Down" was hastily sprayed in black paint across the base of the golden Joan of Arc statue on Decatur Street in the French Quarter sometime earlier this week. It has since been removed, with only the vaguest traces of the paint remaining.
The "Tear it Down" tag would seem to relate to the debate surrounding the city's ongoing removal of four Confederate monuments. But the statue of Joan of Arc, a 15th-century military leader, martyr and Catholic saint, hasn't been mentioned in the controversy to this point.
Amy Kirk Duvoisin, the founder of the annual Joan of Arc parade that ceremonially pauses at the statue on the first day of Carnival season, says she's confused by the vandalism.
"Surely, people realize she's not related to American history," she said referring to the French icon."
I wouldn't be too sure about that, ma'am.
Joan of Arc statue in French Quarter tagged with 'Tear It Down' graffiti | NOLA.com
"Politics is just show business for ugly people."