ART: President would approve

On Nov. 18, I went to Riverstone Park to view Marker No. 11. All I could find was a bare concrete slab with an orange traffic cone on it. Darn, I wanted to view it in person.

What surprises me is that Marker No. 11 has been in this location since 2016. Now, all of a sudden, more than three years later, some locals have their “knickers in a knot” (an old-timey expression) as they think they see “global conspiracy.”

As The Press stated, the statue has now become “a lightning rod for conspiracy theorists, fearmongers and some politicians.” Can I say I completely understand the Russian side of the statue? I don’t. The hammer and sickle are at a different angle, as in perhaps dumping coal.

How much more enlightening it would have been if the statue had remained in place for all of us to study and discuss. I am disappointed that Mayor Widmyer let himself be bullied.

But I am puzzled, because Idaho Republicans voted strongly for Trump and Trump has a love affair with Russia’s Putin. Why the backlash against Marker No. 11?

JANET CALLEN

Coeur d’Alene