LONDON, U.K. -- Well, that didn鈥檛 take long.
Edward Colston has been fished out of Bristol Harbor and is now in hiding.
Headline: Sunken Slaver Surfaces
As you might recall, Colston鈥檚 bronze statue was yanked from its pedestal on Sunday and dumped into the murky waters of the River Avon鈥攎uch the way the bodies of African slaves who perished on the way to America were dumped into the Atlantic.
Bristol鈥檚 mayor won鈥檛 say where he put the statue for safe- keeping. He doesn鈥檛 even know who owns it. And he certainly doesn鈥檛 know what to do with it.
That will be the subject of a 鈥渃alm鈥� citywide conversation鈥斺�渨ithout emotion,鈥� he announced.
Sure.
Anyway, here鈥檚 what Banksy would do with poor, old Edward Colston, and Banksy knows better than anyone about street art.
He would put the poor man back on his plinth, wrap a cable around his neck, and commission an artist to create matching sculptures of angry protestors pulling it down.
Oh Banksy, that鈥檚 brilliant? A statue within a statue. Art imitating life, eh?
They could even have a contest to come up with a name for this new work of art. It could make Bristol famous, like Boston and the Tea Party.
I鈥檓 going with, 鈥淭he Drowning and Resurrection of Edward Colston.鈥�
The other idea is to put the statue in a museum, but doesn鈥檛 that still suggest a place of honour? Unless, of course, you created one big museum for all the offensive statues scattered across the U.K.
The British Museum of Despised and Disposed Monuments.
You could fill it up with slave traders, white nationalists, imperialist marauders, and how about the founder of the Boy Scouts.
True. This morning the British town of Poole announced that it was temporarily removing the statue of Lord Robert Baden-Powell鈥攂efore somebody knocked it down.
They got word it鈥檚 on a 鈥渢arget list.鈥�
Confession: I was a senior Scout. I had the badges. The neck-scarf. The brimmed felt hat. I could tie the knots. And had no idea the Chief Scout was considered by some to be racist, homophobic and a Nazi sympathizer.
I can report to you now there was a mini uprising in Poole. At the end of the day, B-P was still there, under 24-hour security. He may be removed. He may not be removed. This is a fluid situation, people.
London is now reviewing every statue, every plaque, the names of public buildings and streets鈥攁nd any with connections to slavery could be removed or changed.
Sadiq Khan, the city鈥檚 first Muslim mayor, says it鈥檚 time to confront a very uncomfortable truth.
鈥淭hat our nation and city owes a large part of its wealth to its role in the slave trade."
Our museum of the damned and the drowned is filling up.
