Isn't it about time to compromise on Silent Sam?

As I understand this mess, some want a statue (Confederate Memorial/Soldiers Monument/"Silent Sam") at McCorkle Place on the UNC-CH campus to go away, some want it to stay. Most could care less except for the press and a few whose sensibilities have been offended. There’s a statute that says "Don’t move it" yet both statue parts have vanished! Over decades the statue has been revered, ridiculed, repaired and reviled. So, the question is, "What to do now?" Compromises leave both sides a wee bit happy and a wee bit sad-much like a game that ends in a tie. Here is a proposal.

Since the SIGHT of the statue is offensive to some-make it invisible.

Since a law prohibits its removal-RETURN it to its original place.

Since we are so proud of anything made in North Carolina- use a North Carolina PRODUCT.

Since we are so concerned with the cost of this mess-don’t SPEND much on a solution.

Since we are so concerned with students’ feelings-create a place for EXPRESSION.

The North Carolina Granite Corporation in Mount Airy, N.C. provided the stone for the Wright

Brothers’ Monument. Both the bronze statue by John A. Wilson, and its pedestal by the United Daughters of the Confederacy are intact and can be replaced in the original position. A stone triangle, cylinder, cone or pyramid, can be built to completely cover the statue and pedestal. The surface of the new monument can be used by students for whatever graffiti is contemporary. The cost of designing, for the stone, and for construction of the encapsulating monument will be much less than the cost of a new building (or the buy-out of a football coach).

If this is done: the statue will be returned to its original, lawful place; no one will be offended by the sight of it; the state will have spent a pittance to resolve a controversy; a North Carolina company will have provided a few jobs, made a little money and paid a few taxes; the "Entrance" to UNC-CH will be 21st century; both State and Carolina will have an approved "graffiti" place; female students at UNC-CH will no longer be harassed by "The sound of silence"; the Carolina class of 2030 won’t have the foggiest about the granite graffiti walls on McCorkle Place, and, another cohort of students and faculty will find something else that basically, fundamentally, truly violates their sense of freedom,

justice and liberty—-and must be rectified immediately—-by a mob!