Toledo: Local news reports say collapsed mural of George Floyd was struck by lightning

By J.E. Dyer
Toledo: Local news reports say collapsed mural of George Floyd was struck by lightning
George Floyd mural in Toledo, pre-lightning strike. Artist: David Ross. WTOL 11 video

When reports began cropping up on social media on Tuesday that a mural of George Floyd had collapsed, it wasn’t immediately clear what had happened.

The mural was the work of artist David Ross, completed in July 2020 in a neighborhood in north Toledo, Ohio.

Ross, according to WTOL 11, had said “the artwork stands as a memorial and reminder to never forget what happened that day in May of 2020.”

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It was painted on an aging brick building at Summit and Lagrange Streets, and initial photos showed the bricks collapsed into a pile at the side of the building.  Some commentators suggested the old brick façade had simply toppled from bowing further outward over time.

But several local media outlets, including WTOL 11, later confirmed that there was a lightning strike in the immediate vicinity of the building, and eyewitnesses described seeing lightning hit the building.

A witness who saw the wall fall told TFRD they had seen a lightning bolt strike the building. The [Toledo Fire and Rescue] department later confirmed the strike to be the cause of the collapse.

Social media promptly went into overdrive.

https://twitter.com/Cleansniper23/status/1415235376097148929

Counterbattery:

Was the lightning a divine judgment on the memorial?  On its iconic standing with the devoted woke?  On its quality as an artistic specimen?

We will probably never know.  A post-modern Westerner would assume not.  But one lesson we can take from the event seems especially applicable at a time when Americans are trying to triumph over each other by vandalizing and knocking down other people’s monuments.

Anyone can tear a monument down.  But no one has the absolute power to keep one standing.

J.E. Dyer

J.E. Dyer

J.E. Dyer is a retired Naval Intelligence officer who lives in Southern California, blogging as The Optimistic Conservative for domestic tranquility and world peace. Her articles have appeared at Hot Air, Commentary’s Contentions, Patheos, The Daily Caller, The Jewish Press, and The Weekly Standard.

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