While it is heartening to hear that the statue of white supremacist Charles Aycock will be removed from the US Capitol, it is equally discouraging that he will likely be replaced by televangelist Billy Graham.
Without a counterbalance from other segments of American life, installing Billy Graham in the Capitol is symbolic of a degradation of First Amendment imperatives.
In general, we propose that for every televangelist who gets a statue in the US Capitol, they have to install a statue of an important comedian. This will create a symbolic balance to the honoring of Christian ministers by honoring our paragons of free expression.
Specifically in this case, we nominate Richard Pryor to be Billy Graham's counterpart.