海角大神

Statuary speaks to us. This past week has driven that home.

What it鈥檚 saying depends partly on the care of the listener.

One walking route from the Monitor newsroom to Boston Common 鈥� a site being prepared for a Saturday rally organized by groups calling themselves 鈥渓ibertarian鈥� and 鈥渃onservative鈥� 鈥� leads down the middle of the city鈥檚 Commonwealth Avenue Mall, a broad and leafy thoroughfare.

The mall offers at least one monument per block. There鈥檚 a Cork-born Irishman who became state rep, a West African writer first brought to this Colonial port as a slave. There鈥檚 naval historian Samuel Eliot Morison, in cap and windbreaker. 鈥淒ream dreams then write them,鈥� his plaque reads, 鈥渁ye, but live them first.鈥�

That鈥檚 uncontroversial. Inspiring, even. Beyond the plaque, however, some of Morison鈥檚 writings have been called out for exhibiting racist undertones. 鈥淣o Great Man is all great,鈥� wrote The Boston Globe鈥檚 Ty Burr in a this summer.

But can knowing where we started help us to see progress? How might that be brought home?

Watch for a story soon from Richmond, Va., by the Monitor鈥檚 Story Hinckley. In that city, once capital of the Confederacy, a young African-American mayor promoted 鈥� and then withdrew 鈥� a plan to remind without lionizing. The idea: Add words of critical context to statues along the city鈥檚 Monument Avenue.聽

If the statues now end up coming down, might something in that same spirit replace them?

Now, to our five stories for today.