Commentary: US should build a memorial 'plague column' for COVID-19, but where? Here's an idea
Plague columns don't exist in the United States. The nation was founded too late, after the 17th and early 18th century European heyday of memorials built to mark the end of a blistering contagion.
An epidemic's brutal cost in human lives and its myriad disruptions of daily routine are very real. Yet the deeper motivation for creating this memorial genre of public art springs from a less quantifiable truth: The existential dread that seeps into every corner of a plague-ravaged society's experience must be shaken off.
Catharsis is neither effortless nor automatic. Art does not heal, but it does offer solace.
Plague columns haven't been much in fashion for nearly 300 years. But as the horrendous toll of death and suffering from today's modern coronavirus plague continues to climb, the time may have come to consider reviving this once common genre of public art.
When the pandemic
