How an organism describes itself can tell you a lot about that organism. For example, I idealize myself as earnest and rigorous, and I think I should be dating more!

With my previous lease expired and without an upcoming lease, I'm taking the opportunity to spend the week in the DC area. Touring Capitol Hill, I've seen how the US describes itself: a union of heterogeneous peoples.¹ We strive to support some of those peoples more. However, we disagree which of those peoples we should support more, and how. In general though, we recognize the historic struggle of Black and Indigenous Americans for their civil rights.

For most Americans that story should sound familiar. However, I learned states also can describe themselves with 2 statues each in the capitol. Michigan, my home state, obviously presents Former President Gerald Ford from Michigan.

It also currently presents Lewis Cass, who served many positions including Governor of the Michigan Territory, Secretary of War (under Former President Andrew Jackson), Senator, and Secretary of State (under Former President James Buchanan). As Secretary of War, Cass helped implement Jackson's policy of Indian removal. A slave owner advocating popular sovereignty (the right of states to permit slavery), he later resigned as Secretary of State with pro-slavery sympathies. Keeping Lewis Cass's statue would distance Michigan from the struggle of Black and Indigenous Americans, so in 2022 Michigan resolved to replace Cass's statue with a statue of Coleman Young, Detroit’s first Black mayor, who also stood up to the House Un-American Activities Committee.