A short, personal thread on monuments: I am in favor of removing public monuments of traitors, particularly when those monuments are specifically intended to glorify the figure's treachery. If they're pictured in uniform and/or mounted and/or with weapons etc... 1/5

...then they don't belong in public parks, in front of government buildings, at public schools, etc. The record is very clear that almost every single one of those monuments was erected specifically to intimidate black Americans. We should all be ashamed they exist. 2/5

But I am not aligned with the emerging impulse to remove every statue of every imperfect historical figure. I understand the impulse, but I hope we pause to reflect, rather than simply destroy all statuary. 3/5

Removing treacherous Confederates is an easy call. They should have never been allowed in the first place: they didn't honor any of our national virtues. But now we are removing reminders of patriotic Americans who were imperfect but upon whose legacies we can build. 4/5

I would love to see our array of statues diversified dramatically, but if "perfection" is the standard, we won't have any statues left -- and where does that leave the pigeons? 5/5