I can’t imagine life in any city that doesn’t have a tall statue of someone marginally famous. It is a sign that the city has no interesting people, or that nothing of importance has taken place there. It’s why I am always cheered up by reports of a new statue being commissioned, planned, or inaugurated somewhere within our borders. We should all accept the fact that a country full of statues is the only kind of country worth living in.

Naysayers tend to write off statues as unnecessary expenses. They come up with the usual arguments about how taxpayer money should be used for things like education, healthcare, or hunger instead. They want our government to tackle poverty and malnutrition. They go on and on about the need for safe cities and clean streets, as if a statue gets in the way of those things.