So much suffering persists – rampantly – within the United States. Just a few examples: alcoholism and drug addiction on Native American reservations, areas of urban blight and senseless violence, the opioid epidemic, poverty in Appalachia, the lack of adequate affordable healthcare and education – oh, and there’s a murderous foreign radical movement planting seeds of wanton violence within our borders to destroy our western culture.

But we’re focusing our energy, passion and resources to throw stones at anachronistic symbols, ostensibly to promote healing and eliminate racial tensions.

It would be too reasonable to establish a hierarchy of needs and focus resources on education, employment, mental health, and violence prevention – not to mention environmental disasters, rotting infrastructure, terrorism and war. The only winners in this controversy are the politicians – those who thrive on the “politics of distraction”, distracting citizens from the dearth of real progress in so many other societal categories with vital human importance.

Will action regarding the Civil War monuments bring any real improvement in the quality of life in Richmond? All successful (non-fascistic) movements thrive by employing pragmatic compromise. Find it, and move on to the real hierarchy of needs for social benefit.