These days, I’m often disconnected from the daily news grind. And I’m inconsistent in my attention to social media. So, I sometimes lose track of current events.
A friend had to inform me, for example, of something called the South Dakota Capitol Freedom Project, which Gov. Kristi Noem is promoting this week as she celebrates Donald Trump’s nomination at the Republican National Convention.
Apparently all steamed up with partisan vigor, Noem is also predicting the end of civilization — with “looting, chaos, destruction, murder” and, we can assume, cats and dogs living together — if “radicals” (um, that’s Uncle Joe Biden, I guess?) take over.
But, OK, back to reality: The South Dakota Capitol Freedom Project.
A multi-tasker, Noem is handling her responsibilities to Trump promotion at the convention while she is also promoting an idea that has been around for a while, like since the South Dakota Capitol was constructed in 1910. And that’s even before I was born. She wants to place statues of prominent people in the four narrow alcoves built into the outside base of the Capitol dome.
If you’re like me, you either hadn’t noticed those alcoves or you forgot them. It’s easy to do because they kind of blend into the overall shape of the Capitol. And it doesn’t leave the impression that something is missing.
But, according to the plan, something is. The alcoves are spaced evenly around the outside of the dome, sitting empty. There are also four similar alcoves on the inside of the dome, not sitting empty. More on that in a second.
Everybody’s got a plan until it gets delayed or forgotten or ignored
All the alcoves and the presumed sculpted occupants were part of the original Capitol plan. But especially in government, plans or parts of plans often get delayed. Forgotten. Unfunded. And pretty soon decades pass, without the plan being completed.
Finally, in 1989, South Dakota’s Centennial year, the four inside alcoves were filled with bronze sculptures of women representing Wisdom, Courage, Integrity, and Vision. They were created by Sturgis-area artist Dale Lamphere, whose work you might know from the amazing Dignity sculpture along I-90 in the Missouri River breaks at Chamberlain and from the gleaming Arc of Dreams over the Big Sioux River in downtown Sioux Falls.
Noem thinks it’s time to fill the outside alcoves with meaningful sculptures, too. And as seems to be her inclination, maybe to sculpt some political advantages as well.
She’s going about promoting the project while also playing on partisanship and building her already substantial credentials with the national Republican base, which is now the Donald Trump base.
She came up with a catchy slogan, too: “While other states are tearing down statues, South Dakota is putting them up.”
Such messaging doesn’t happen by accident. And Noem’s Capitol statues project meshes with the oversimplifying of complicated issues connected to Confederate statues and how to handle them. Not all statues are good. Some were mistakes, conceived and erected out of ignorance and sometimes with dishonorable intent. Some should be removed or taken to more appropriate locations.
Others, however, should not be removed and they certainly shouldn’t be vandalized, as some worthier statues of worthier people have been. Some people honored by such art are imperfect historical figures who brought both good and bad with them into history.
Taking the complicated out of statues debate and adding the political
It’s our job to sort through all that, in a process of reason and respect, to make some choices. It’s not simple. It’s not supposed to be. We’re expected as adult human beings to delve into complexities and figure them out, not promote ourselves or our politics with oversimplified slogans that feed bias and division.
But things are pretty simple in Noem’s Capitol statues promotion: It’s a freedom fight. And statues are right. And good. And truly American. In Donald Trump’s version of the Republican Party, statues are not just worth supporting, they’re worth fighting for as if our nation’s freedom depended on them.
It doesn’t. But true believers in the illusion promoted by Donald Trump, and now by our governor, believe otherwise. And Noem’s slogan fits into the narratives quite well, especially while the Republican eyes of America are upon us through her speaking role at the convention.
It’s smart. And cynical. And opportunistic.
While national money might be key, the plan needs local approval, from the state Capitol Complex Restoration and Beautification Commission. I’d guess that approval is coming. Then the project needs hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay for the statues. That has already begun, with help from the slogan and the national convention, through a fund at the South Dakota Community Foundation.
If a typical 6-foot bronze of a former governor for the Trail of Governors in Pierre costs about $70,000 (and I think they do), a bigger statue of nearly 10-feet tall to fit the outside Capitol alcoves will cost more. Twice as much? Maybe, or close to it. Then you’ve got to get them placed way up there on the side of the dome, through a process that I would find daunting and terrifying and even experts might consider a challenge.
So, easily $500,000, and probably quite a bit more than that.
Like the plan or not, it’s smartly constructed
And I have to give Noem credit there. Promoting “freedom” and “statues” at the Republican National Convention is a double-dog-whistle way to attract donations from across the nation.
Even the website name of freedom.sd.gov fits. It promotes the theme, and is easy to spell and remember, especially for some potential GOP donor who responds to the “freedom” call like a hot-running hunting dog to the “beep” of a shock collar.
Noem is going to get some money for the project, probably quite a bit. Enough? We’ll see.
And the statues themselves? Well, Noem likes the idea of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt. And I suppose it’s a fair argument that we are the Mount Rushmore State, so the “outsiders” of the past have some inside connections.
You might need binoculars to admire the statues. Even at 9 or 10 feet tall, how much can we really appreciate the artwork from way down on the ground? And if we’re going to stick some statues up there and alter the countenance of the Capitol, shouldn’t we talk about it a bit first?
I don’t know how much room there is in the Capitol commission’s review process for public comment, but I hope quite a bit. If there isn’t, Noem should make some. There should be a lot of public involvement, not just in whether to add statues but which ones to add.
On that subject, why not consider statues of actual South Dakotans? People, who actually, well, had something to do with that state Capitol, grew up here or made a difference here?
Maybe a woman? Gladys Pyle comes to mind, for one.
Maybe a Native American? Ben Reifel or Billy Mills comes to mind. Nicholas Black Elk, too.
If we have to have some guys, here’s an idea or two
And, sure, OK, some white guys. Because Lord knows, you can never have enough statues of white guys, can you? So, sure, put a couple of them up there, too.
Peter Norbeck, maybe, or Joe Foss, white guys who did impressive things here in South Dakota, and impressive things elsewhere. South Dakota white guys, as opposed to white guys from Kentucky, Virginia, and New York.
Oh, and in case we forget, Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson, and Roosevelt already get quite a bit of attention here in South Dakota through that fairly well-known collective sculpture carved out of the face of a mountain located on federal land right here in the Black Hills.
I like Mount Rushmore, all of its contradictions and controversies notwithstanding. I’m glad it’s here. It shouldn’t be destroyed or defiled, even though two of the presidents represented — Washington and Jefferson — were slave owners. And a third, Roosevelt, had unfortunate racist inclinations that certainly mitigated his admirable qualities.
Do we really want to expand the debate over the four granite faces in the Black Hills to the Capitol Dome in Pierre?
I can see how such a fuss might help fundraising for the statues project. And I can see how it might further ingratiate our governor with President Trump, the conservative national media, and the most riled-up members of the GOP base.
But I’m struggling to figure out how it would benefit South Dakota.
