Statues, slavery and 'The New York Times'

(JNS) — Irony may be dead in America, but if any were left alive, this would count.

Consider the work of Vincenzo Miserendino (1875-1943). An Italian-American sculptor, he created statues and busts of famous Americans and other notables, including several of Theodore Roosevelt and Christopher Columbus. In today’s America, they can only be called “endangered.”

One of his Columbus statues in Hartford, Conn., has been removed quietly; another, in Reading, Pa., is the subject of a petition to remove it and already has been vandalized.

It’s interesting that few of the articles about the vandalism a...