海角大神

I鈥檝e lived in Washington, D.C., 32 years, but don鈥檛 ask me to identify most of the city鈥檚 statues. Sure, I have my favorites, starting with Joan of Arc听听from Meridian Hill Park. Some, like Andrew Jackson in Lafayette Park, can be appreciated as art, but have become flashpoints. President Jackson forcibly moved Indigenous people from their land and enslaved people.

Earlier this week, protesters听听and tried to topple the Jackson statue, but were thwarted by police. Now it鈥檚 protected by a chain-link fence, awaiting its fate.听

A radio听听Thursday with former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu spoke to ways of dealing with controversial statues that involve a full spectrum of voices and force the whole community to wrestle with听the past. Several years ago, during planning for the city鈥檚 tricentennial, renowned Black musician Wynton Marsalis suggested that the city鈥檚 Confederate statues be removed.听

Mayor Landrieu agreed, and thus was launched a process: months of debate, a public hearing, a city council vote (6-1), a vote in the legislature, and court challenges. Finally,听听to protect the workers, the statues came down.

Later, Mr. Landrieu used the experience as the frame for his memoir, 鈥淚n the Shadow of Statues: A White Southerner Confronts History.鈥澨�

鈥淗ere is what I have learned about race,鈥� he wrote in听. 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 go over it. You can鈥檛 go under it. You can鈥檛 go around it. You have to go through it.鈥�

By doing that 鈥� and having a truly inclusive conversation guided by democratic processes 鈥� the public landscape changed.听