Statues and History and Heritage
‘You can’t change history,’ they cry.
Forgetting the old Collingwood adage:
‘Every generation re-writes history in its own way’.
And people are re-writing history at the moment:
I see BLM chalked on pavements and walls,
As I saunter along by my mother-in-law's
In suburban Henleaze in Bristol.
An echo of chalkings such as
‘The People’s Farm’,
From Thomas Spence and the Spenceans
Over two hundred years ago.
I see a statue toppled in Bristol on television,
And then read of a statue of ‘His Majesty’,
Toppled in Bristol,
Over two hundred years ago.
And just as people took to the streets
Over two hundred years ago,
To demand a moral economy,
People are now demanding
A moral society.
So, when they cry,
‘You can’t change history’,
At the people in the streets,
They forget that
‘Every generation re-writes history in its own way’.
For that is our History and Heritage.
