The Statues that Got to Me

Published in the Idaho State Journal on July 18, 2021  

This week in Charlottesville, Virginia, three statues were removed from prominent public places. I knew about the first two when I sat down to write this piece, but I learned about the third when I turned to the internet to clarify a few details.

The first two were statues of Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson. The site of Lee’s statue is where the2017 Charlottesville “Unite the Right” rally was held and where protester Heather Heyer was killed after a Nazi enthusiast drove into a crowd of counter-protesters. The third statue that was removed surprised me. It was a statue of Lewis and Clark along with Sacajawea.

Why in the heck was that removed? My quest to find out why led me down a rabbit hole of internet research that concluded with an hour-long phone call with a woman in Fort Hall named Rose Ann Abrahamson. Rose Ann is Sacajawea’s great-great-great niece. More on her in a minute.

I haven’t kept up with every statue across our country that has been removed, relocated or is the focal point of such talks, but my original intent in this piece was to mention the Confederate statues in Charlottesville as a lead-in to discuss two other statues in recent years that got to me. After learning about the Sacajawea statue in Charlottesville, however, now there are three - three statues in particular that lead me to be a solid proponent of these discussions at local and national levels about who we honor and how.

The first statue that got to me was that of Joe Paterno on the Penn State campus. Paterno began coaching at Penn State in 1966. A seven-foot bronze statue of him was erected on c in 2001, and he was the winningest coach in NCAA Division I history at the time of his dismissal in 2011. His statue was removed in 2012 in response to his lack of response when he learned that one of his coaches was molesting boys in the school locker room.  

The former president of Penn State, Rodney Erickson, said at the time “were it to remain, the statue will be a recurring wound to the multitude of individuals across the nation and beyond who have been the victims of child abuse.” And not only that, it would have entailed a school and community continuing to honor someone whose negligence hurt children at their institution. 

The second statue that got to me was that of J. Marion Sims in Central Park across from the New York Academy of Medicine. I had never heard of him at the time of the statues removal in 2018. When I read a headline that an old doctor’s statue was being removed, I thought for sure these efforts were about to spin out of control - until I explored the Wikipedia tributaries for information on James Marion Sims and found dozens of articles after that. I was horrified. 

 

Sims has been called the “Father of Gynecology” for groundbreaking surgical treatments and inventions, but his success came through experimentation on enslaved women without the use of anesthesia. His “work” was raw torture, sanctioned and encouraged by our society at that time. I felt aches and twinges as I read in detail what he did to women. Black women. Although the New York statue has been relocated, there are still others of him prominently displayed in our country showcasing Sims as a dignified doctor rather than the medical monster he was. How long will they stay? 

The third taken-down statue that got to me is the one I have only known about for six hours at the time of this writing: the Lewis and Clark statue with Sacajawea located in Charlottesville. Or should I be calling it the Sacajawea statue with Lewis and Clark?

Descendants of Sacajawea, including Rose Ann who I mentioned earlier, visited Charlottesville in 2019 to talk with city officials in person about Sacajawea’s life and how she is portrayed in the statue. Lewis and Clark are featured standing tall and looking outward while Sacajawea is crouching and looking at the ground. “Cowering” and “subservient” were words that Rose Ann used. As I searched the web for photographs at varying angles to form my own opinion, I came to see and feel why keeping this statue as a centerpiece of the city is problematic.

 

Lewis and Clark are depicted noble and proud. Sacajawea isn’t. It isn’t that the statue is offensive; it is arguably inaccurate. Here in the West, we’ve developed a great regard for Sacajawea as an integral part of that expedition. The statue in Charlottesville doesn’t do her justice. It doesn’t do history justice. Talks are ongoing to relocate the Sacajawea statue to the Lewis and Clark Exploratory Center in Charlottesville where it can be given context and used to educate the public. 

Each of these statues got to me because I feel the human elements of why they needed to be removed or relocated. I feel an extra disgust at Paterno’s statue from being the child of a child protection worker. I feel an extra repulsion in Sims statue from being a woman, and I feel an extra dismay entwined in the Lewis and Clark and Sacajawea statue with that particular representation of Sacajawea because of how I’ve come to learn about and revere her in southeast Idaho.  

I welcome this dialogue in our nation about who we honor and how.  Remembering and honoring are completely different, and how we go about each of those speaks to who we are, who we have been and who we want to be.

 

Stock photo of Charlottesville statue

 

Saving America One Reunion at a Time

I attended the Juneteenth celebration at the Pocatello Senior Center two weeks ago.  I was reunited with people I haven’t seen in over a year due to the pandemic as well as people I haven’t seen in many years due to the business of our lives. When I was visiting with an old friend with from my days working at ShopKo in the mid-90’s, I noticed our Chief of Police flipping burgers. One of his captains manned the grill next to him, and members of the Idaho State Football team along with two Pocatello City Council members served food to the lunchtime stragglers.

I was happy to see that the event, hosted by the Pocatello Branch of the NAACP, received media coverage in the ISJ’s print edition on June 22 titled “Diverse group of more than 200 people celebrate Juneteenth in Pocatello.” I was even happier to see the pictures provided by Pocatello City Councilwoman Heidi Adamson and Police Chief Roger Schei included in the online version. Reading about events in our community is one thing, but seeing them adds a valuable dimension - especially when those celebrations are about our diversity. Experiencing them in person, as I did, is even more valuable and refreshing.

After the Juneteenth picnic, I headed to Priddaho’s LGBTQ Pride celebration at the Bannock Fairgrounds. My heart felt serenely settled seeing so many people gathered in kindness and revelry. I experienced even more sweet reunions with people I haven’t seen in a long time. I can now say that I have been re-acclimated to hugs.

My attendance at both of these events has spawned the exact emotional state I want to usher me in to the Fourth of July.

I love the Fourth of July. I love the food, fanfare and fireworks. Freedom, too. (Although, I will not be buying any fireworks this year, and I beg everyone to please, please be conscious of the fire risk around us.) I enjoy feeling like I am a part of something bigger, and even more,  I like being a part of something bigger. Attending community events in person remind us that we really are part of something vast. I missed that during this past year with Covid-19.

Community events like these are not just invitations for people to come together over a kernel of commonality, they are opportunities for us to uphold America. Our country is having, or trying to have, some serious conversations about race, policing, religious freedom, gun rights and education to name just a few topics. It is impossible to have meaningful conversations without a foundation from which to build – without relationships that can support the content and emotion.

I talked with Chief Schei at the Juneteenth gathering and expressed my gratitude that he and his officers were there. He let me know that officers were also in attendance at the Pride festival. He and I both agree on the criticality of relationships in our society. Knowing fellow Americans who are Black; knowing fellow Americans who are in law enforcement; knowing fellow Americans who are gay, Christian, Muslim, teachers, gun-owners, parents and on and on will only help us in the conversations we need to be having in this country. It’s just not enough anymore to simply be an American to listen to each other. We need to have relationships with our fellow Americans for trust to take hold and discussions to develop.

Learning to trust each other and talk to each other takes practice. Building and maintaining relationships takes practice. Finding a kernel of commonality and building from there takes practice, but how might we find that and practice these things?  Attending events like I mention above can certainly help, but you can also go to your high school reunion. (I’m looking at you Poky and Highland Classes of ’90 and ’91.)

Think about it. The passé hairstyles, the quirky math teacher, the Cruise, homecoming shenanigans, the songs, the cheers, the skipping classes (not me) … all of those memories from a specific and shared time in our life can lead to conversations with people we might not otherwise engage today. When we can talk about the seemingly small things we have in common, it opens the door for more serious conversations at a later date. America needs this from her citizens.

On this Independence Day in 2021, if you’re feeling disconnected in the wake of the pandemic, make plans to go to your high school class reunion and reconnect. If you’re feeling the woes of political divides, go to your class reunion but don’t talk politics. Talk about your younger years. If you’re feeling like America needs saving, the perfect gift on her 245^th birthday is an RSVP to your high school class reunion and a commitment to work on just that – reuniting.