ISawArkansas

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Gotta admit, Republicans sabotaging golf carts belonging to Democrats in a Florida retirement community did get us going.

Who would’ve thought that old rich white people would be the ones tossing nails on a cart path and hurling eggs at those who don’t vote the same way, see things the same way or raise petunias and Pugs the same way?

Frustration is dominating our behavior because we’re daring it to. Frustration is derived from expectations that unexpectedly tank. Frustration leads to aggression. Ever kick a flat tire? A Coke machine? Wastebasket?

Current statue shattering made us think of those morally earnest Puritans who landed on the northeastern shores of a new world 500 years ago. There were people already here who had no idea about black powder or diseases or money or marriage, so right away there was a difference of opinion that was settled by warfare and other pushy behavior.

The Puritans had escaped what they saw as monarchy and popery – rich taking from the poor, of course, but also everyone being told how to behave by those who weren’t behaving well at all.

The elephant at the altar was church and state marrying each other.

So, the Puritans got into small ships or large boats and headed west. When they landed here, Puritans saw it as a duty to compel the natives to believe as they did by doing exactly what drove them out of Europe.

Puritans wanted two things – support from parliament and to be left alone. When that didn’t work out, they simply made their church elders their political leaders. That’s when intolerance found its happy place.

Puritans were like an art form in their beliefs, preaching and lifestyles. They had reasoning with a purpose, and not everyone liked it. But Puritans pursued their version of perfection, and anyone who disagreed was banned from the community unless they converted.

Which made us think of how statues are now being toppled because the people who were sculpted were just so awful. Isn’t intolerance what we’re trying to escape?

Statues are art and art is what we don’t have nearly enough of. But we, people, are destroying statues of people. Are we destroying the person or the person’s deeds?

Neither. We’re just annoying those we don’t agree with.

Wouldn’t it be better to keep the art, honor the artist, and put up a plaque saying exactly who this is and what heroic or horrible they did? Use sculpture as a teaching tool? Is honesty just too serene?

When we yank statues down, we act as if making them disappear will heal us. That’s textbook denial. Seems it would be more productive to honor the artist, then explain the depicted person and their effect on our country. Take it or leave it, but criminy, breaking it into pieces is no different than denying that the crazy aunt in everybody’s basement, or head, exists. She’s crazy, sure, her name is Ennui, and her genes are romping through us.

War always kills more than people, so why in the world would we think it’s a good idea to incite disharmony by defacing those who were unexpectedly and unfairly prominent? Do we really think someone won’t erect a statue of Donald J. Trump? It deserves a plaque.

Flags, now they’re a different story.