This is the memory palace.

I'm Nate Demetow.

Notes on an imagined plaque to be added to the Statue of General Nathan Bedford Forest

upon hearing that the Memphis City Council is voted to move it, and the Exume remains of

General Forest and his wife, Mary Ann Montgomery Forest, from their current location in a

park downtown to the nearby Elmwood cemetery.

First it should be big, the plaque.

Not necessarily because there's so much to say, though there is so much to say, but big

enough to be noticed on the side of this rather grand monument after they move it and

the bodies beneath it, across town to the cemetery.

It's not just big for the sake of bigness, it needs to stick out as something off, something

that disrupts the admirable balance of the Statue.

Currently so tasteful, wrinkle even, this bronze man on this bronze horse, goatee, square

jaw, you get it.

You've seen it before, even if you haven't seen it before.

The Statue faces north, the sculpture wanted for us to face south, to better catch the

light, but people complained, said it would imply that the general was retreating, and

he wasn't a man who retreated.

He surrendered once, but if the sculpture face north, maybe people would forget that part,

I guess.

So ending with the plaque has to be big enough to catch your eye, when you're checking

your cell phone or walking your dog or eating a chicken Caesar salad from a plastic box

...