You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.
Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke apparently thought his fellow city chief executive had the right idea Friday when he issued a news release that said he was asking his city attorney to file paperwork to ensure the city was no longer associated with the Confederate Cemetery on Third Street.
The gesture followed a week of politicians across the South expressing new-found opinions that any or all statuary in their states or cities that in any way memorialized the Confederate side of the Civil War more than 150 years ago be moved, destroyed or covered.
Since Chattanooga has no public Confederate statuary to besmirch – save a bust on the Hamilton County Courthouse grounds that was erected in memory of a former soldier who helped in the peacemaking effort to preserve Chickamauga Battlefield – Berke must have felt duty-bound to join his fellow politicians and make a stand against the violence that broke out in Charlottesville, Va., on Aug. 12, when protesters clashed over the potential removal of a statue there of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.
In this case, it was an unnecessary stand and a particularly empty gesture. And just for good measure, his statement was released on a Friday, the day all smart politicians make statements or release unpleasant news in the hopes it will become buried in the weekend milieu.