John Breckinridge is a part of the great history of this city. His memory deserves a prominent place here, both as a testament to his being, as well as a reminder to us of his hubris.

Breckinridge was no doubt a genius. Many of his attributes represent what we want for people in Lexington today. Education, intelligence, leadership, dedication, determination, courage, diplomacy, good sense, faithfulness, honesty. We all could go on. He possessed such a trove.

He did really just one wrong thing: he believed that some people should be able to own other people.

But oh what a blunder. It erases all his positives.

There can be no revisionist history on this. If we honor his memory at all, we must acknowledge the central gamble of his life: that a new nation could be created where it was OK for some people to own other people.

He tried it. He gave it his all. And he lost.  Good.

After the war, Breckinridge abided by the terms of his parole and, pleasingly, pushed for certain judicial rights for free blacks. Near the end of his life, he denounced the Klan as “idiots.” Good for him. Doesn’t make up for the whole “ok to own people” thing. Don’t fool yourself.

For 123 years his likeness has presided forcefully over Cheapside park, where slaves where once sold, and – without any acknowledged irony – facing the Courthouse where the laws were supposedly held sacred. (Imagine how you would feel if you were a non-white person walking into that supposed hall of justice between statues of two prominent defenders of slavery – Morgan on his horse being the other.)

But now, in an effort to create a new Lexington, Breckinridge is in the way of progress. The new Cheapside will be a place of life, hope, fun, and beauty. The three-ton sculpture of Breckinridge really doesn’t fit there.

Fortunately our community came together, honestly discussed our past and its place in our present and future, and came up with a fitting way to honor an important person by finding an appropriate spot outside of the downtown of the NEW Lexington.

KIDDING.

Instead, because no one cares, or knows, about Breckinridge, our city will soon have his heavy presence looming, not over Cheapside anymore, but over our very own Main Street!

Yep. Thanks to our cowardice, ignorance, or laziness, our very own Main Street will host one of the largest pieces of public art in the city. A statue dedicated to the memory of a person who thought slavery was worth dying for.

I bet we won’t see too many pictures of this in our advertisements for our city. Especially since it is nearly universally agreed that we need the “creative class” here to help our economy. Tolerance is a central tenement of being attractive to the “creative class.”

On the path we’re on, we’ll end up with deeply dissonant “creative class” pronouncements, but meanwhile we’ll have this gray guy looming over our main street and we either wont know or wont like to say who he was.

It will be hard to prove we are tolerant when we have one of the most successful proponents of slavery standing watch over our Main Street.

I’m in no way arguing for a whitewash of our history. Lexington was a major player in the early U.S. We’ve had a giant roll of shapers of this country pass through the streets we drive ignorantly on. Lexington at that time was a battleground of freedom and slavery.

John C. Breckinridge deserves a place in our city.  Let that be the Lexington Cemetery.  With all the other dead ideas.

Let’s not let Lexington miss another opportunity to deal with its past and move into the future. Let’s honor the past by honoring most brightly what the winning side represents: opportunity and freedom for ALL our citizens.

And keep the faith:

People said Lincoln was wrong on slavery

People said Churchill was too hard on Hitler

People said Dr. King was too fast on civil rights

Well, at least one of them grew to an old age.