Alexandria — On the question of how Alexandria can deal constructively with the
remnants of the Confederacy:
A park should be established at the site, on Duke Street, of the
most craven crimes, the slave markets. With beautiful trees and flowers
to mitigate the stark horror of the memories associated with this place,
brief descriptions can tell the story.
The streets now named for Confederate generals can be given the
names of some of the slaves known to be linked to this market.
In the big, national picture: Reparations. Just say yes!
And as for the statue, I hope it will be preserved in a museum.
There is, for me, not a trace of "Mission Accomplished" triumphalism in
this statue. On the contrary, the figure seems to look on the past and
the future with sadness equal to their tragedies. Whatever may have
been the intention of those who commissioned it, and indeed the
conscious intention of the artist himself, about whom I know nothing,
the statue has always captured for me precisely the feeling I have for
the Civil War.
Elisabeth Vodola
Alexandria