Being a native of Asheville, I attended local schools and earned my four degrees from North Carolina institutes of higher learning. With a major in English, I taught seven years at Buncombe County high schools before becoming an instructor at one college and one technical institute elsewhere in this state.
After my retirement in 1986, I returned to this city and became one of the first supporters of the Asheville Urban Trail. As a member of the committee that composed titles and historical descriptions for bronze plaques at stations downtown, I gave considerable thought to the task.
My proposal is to rename the shaft of stone on Pack Square as Peace Monument. Through the generations since the obelisk’s dedication, local citizens and visitors have become accustomed to saying the one-syllable last name of five letters (Vance) as part of the title. My recommendation of “Peace” within the inscription retains that easy sound of one syllable and that simple spelling of five letters. Unlike the name of a deceased person whose popularity may plummet, “Peace” represents harmony, order, security and reconciliation.
— John C. Young Jr.
Asheville
Wonderful idea! Many Richmond Hill and River Rescue volunteers have a similar hope for the 90 acres adjoining Richmond Hill Park that’s now on a Florida developer’s chopping block for the ill-conceived Bluffs.
We want to preserve that land in a conservation easement and call it Unity Park–or any other befitting name that inspires equity, justice, reverence for Nature, cohesive communities, and civic cooperation as we look to (and look out for) Asheville’s future.
How’s the fundraising going to buy that property to claim it for yourselves ?
How much can it be bought for , any idea ?
If you renamed the Statue of Liberty, the Liberty Bell, the Lincoln Memorial or any other well known monument, how many people would call it by its new name? Would it change what it represented in the first place? (My examples being monuments to good and decent things while the Vance Monument being dedicated to racism and treason). Take it down and build a new monument to peace in its place. The war against racism will not be won by trying to appease it.