I woke up early, finished my book–so good–and then it was time to lug Brompty down the stairs to ride  to the Jackson & Lee monument over by the BMA for a historical tour of Baltimore monuments. They’re there on horseback, and etched at the base is this: “They Were Great Generals amd Christian Soldiers and Waged War Like Gentlemen.” Then we weaved in ways I never would to get down to the Battle Monument on Calvert and Lexington, the first public memorial to a war, but not the last. Then we rode over to Mt. Vernon to check out the first Washington Monument in the U.S. DC was slow to move on a monument because officials weren’t sure there should be a monument to a general–after all, we were ditching monarchy and lodging power with the people, lest government become a parasite on the labor of the common man–doesn’t a monument send the wrong message? We took a short break, which I used to show everyone how the Brompton folds, proclaiming it a “monument to design.” Then there was this monument to Roger Taney. He was the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and he was from Maryland. He’s also the guy responsible for the Dred Scott decision. And we’ve got his statue here, and folks have to pass it day after day after day. We biked over to a monument to the Revolutionary War and then to one honoring the Confederate dead. Glory to the vanquished. This is the stuff we’re memorializing in this town. I pedaled back up the hill to home for a lazy afternoon thinking about what I’d put on my interpretive sign for the Taney statue.