Well, I kept expecting someone at the RNC to talk about Obama's connections to critical race theory. I was completely ready to blog about that. But no such luck. This convention was remarkably on script. There was one unexpected paragraph in Governor Romney's speech yesterday, though I think I'm the only person who's talking about it….
Since I am, as anyone who knows me realizes, obsessed with monuments, monument law, and with their constitutional significance, I want to point out that Governor Romney referred to monuments in his acceptance speech yesterday:
Everywhere I go in America, there are monuments that list those who have given their lives for America. There is no mention of their race, their party affiliation, or what they did for a living. They lived and died under a single flag, fighting for a single purpose. They pledged allegiance to the UNITED States of America.
Or, in the case of many monuments in the South, to the "Confederate States of America," I suppose he might have added.
Is it possible that Romney stops and visits monuments the way I do?! At any rate, I find it very exciting that monuments — particularly war monuments — made their way into a major political speech. This is further evidence of the continuing relevance of monuments to our culture. And it is an invitation to talk about how the monuments are often — though not always — about uniting us.
The illustration is of the Washington Monument in Richmond, Virginia.
Personally, I am a fan of the Robert E. Lee statue on Monument Avenue in Richmond and the related explanations of Northerners and Southerners as to why Lee and his horse are facing South . . . . :>)