Confederates and marble soldiers

(Photo from online wall street journal)

There's an embarrasment of riches in the news today, public sculpture-wise.
The Pope is going to visit the Virgin of Charity statue in Cuba before he meets with the latest Castro.
Galway, Ireland, has stirred up a brouhaha with their propsoed Che Guevara Statue.
And the sporting statue survey is running apace.
More about those later...
Today's winner has drama, politics, history, and conspiracy theory all wrapped into one life sized marble confereate soldier.
A sleepy driver ran his truck into the 32 foot pillar with the soldier in the middle of of Reidsville, NC's central traffic circle. The solider, roused from its 101 year sleep, bounced off the pillar and smashed. Its head torpedoed the van itself, crushing the engine.
Replacing the statue has reignited the old flames of Dixie as the town fights about the place of commemorating the Confederacy in their public places. The Daughters of the Confederacy are willing to move the repaired piece to a cemetery. The Mayor is ready to back them so that no one will think the town is still fighting the 150 year old conflict.
But there are the conspiracy theorists who feel that the destruction is deliberate.
Learn more at:
  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303812904577293590627745290.html?mod=googlenews_wsjg