Charleston, WV is usually sleepy by state capitol standards, but the quiet was recently shattered by the appearance of two new statues, one honoring coal miners, the other female veterans. The coal miner statue depicts a guy wearing a hard hat, the veteran statue has a muscular woman wearing a casual uniform of pants and a T-shirt.

What is troubling to some about the miner statue is not the guy, but one of the plaques bolted to its base, which praises the blasting away of mountaintops to get at coal, and which the Capitol Building Commission says it is powerless to change (see World Puppet Day ).

Conversely, some state lawmakers have been shocked into public denouncements of the masculinity of the female veterans statue. The chairman of the Senate Military Committee has even suggested that the statue be altered to depict a woman in a skirt. This would cost a lot more than removing the plaque on the coal miners statue, thus neither is likely to happen, and thus everyone in Charleston will have a statue that they can dislike. [03/16/2003]

February 10, 2012