A lost cause

Defacing statue hardly a meaningful act

Some misguided nitwit or nitwits did damage recently to the statue — a negligible tribute using a made-up, mass-produced image of a Confederate soldier — in Bentonville’s downtown square. Someone, in an act of vandalism, removed the lower portion of the hardened soldier’s rifle.

Erected in the square back in 1908 to memorialize those who fought for the Confederate “home and fatherland,” now the soldier just looks like he stands ready to stir up a bubbly recipe for Halloween. All he needs is a cauldron at his feet.

Police were notified. No word yet on whether the as-yet-unknown culprits will face enhanced charges because their crime involved the use of a gun.

What they face from us is condemnation for defacing someone else’s property, no matter the reason. Was it an anti-gun statement? Or was it an act of someone offended by the reference paid to members of the losing army of the South? It really matters not one bit, because no statue in a public place ought to be vandalized.

Of course this statue irks people, those who have embraced the idea that century-old homages to those who fought for the Confederacy should be shunned from public settings. If the day ever comes that Benton County, which owns the land on which the privately maintained statue rests, decides to remove it, it should be a result of community discussion and decision. It’s not up to some individual or small group to take matters into their own hands, any more than it would be appropriate for someone to deface the Statue of Liberty or the Jefferson Monument.

Would it be wise for Bentonville, whose only involvement is that the statue sits at the heart of the city, and Benton County to discern a better location for the statue? Yes. But when a monument has occupied a central place in a community for 101 years, it’s not unusual for it to be cherished just because it has always been, at least from the perspective of everyone alive today.

As for this vandalism, it’s pointless. It might have been someone acting out of boredom. Or they might be acting out of a desire to send some sort of message. Defacing the statue communicates nothing but disrespect for the greater community and for other people’s property. Whatever message anyone was trying to send is lost in the vagueness of the act and is, in fact, irrelevant.

Whatever the future of that statue in Bentonville, it should not be decided by law-breakers who believe their perspective is greater than the community’s voice.