Ancient civilizations erected all sorts of monuments to their gods. Marble statues of mythical beings that served to inspire us mere mortals.

	Josh Reynolds, Associated Press Kevin Tucker of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War inspects damage inflicted over the weekend on a Civil War Memorial in Boston. Tucker is the descendant of a Massachusetts Civil War Veteran represented by the statue. Click photo for larger image.

Soon enough, we were carving statues of men. Emperors and kings, philosophers and writers. Generals on horseback have always been popular.

Eventually someone suggested a statue to recognize the ordinary soldiers, the unnamed men who bravely fought and died at the order of the generals on horseback.

One of the oldest and most elaborate of these is the Soldiers and Sailors Monument dedicated in Boston Common on Sept. 17, 1877. Sculpted by Martin Milmore, it is an awesome arrangement of four bronze statues, each 8 feet high, representing peace, history, the sailor and the soldier.

The inscription at the base reads: "To the men of Boston who died for their country on land and sea in the war which kept the union whole, destroyed slavery and maintained the Constitution, the grateful city has built this monument that their example may speak to coming generations."

Unfortunately, not everyone is listening.

Sometime over the weekend, most likely in the quiet dark of Saturday night, vandals struck the monument, knocking the soldier -- a figure of a Federal infantryman -- from its 12-foot pedestal, crashing and smashing to the ground.

According to The Boston Globe, the statue's torso was found lying stomach down on the concrete near the base of the memorial. His musket was missing, and his head -- long-admired for bearing the face of a mustachioed citizen-soldier rather than that of a Greek warrior -- was gone.

"Why do people do that?" lamented Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino. "I'm very disturbed. Things like this should not happen in the parks of our city."

No arrests have been made and police said they have no leads. It appears to have been a senseless act of destructive opportunity. Yet the act must have required some sort of devious coordination and effort.

Authorities said the 127-year-old statue weighed 1,000 pounds. And, like I said, it was way up on a pedestal.

"They must have put a couple of shoulders to it, and once they got it rocking, it must have gone right over," one ranger, motioning with his shoulder, suggested to the Globe.

"They had to work at it," Parks Commissioner Antonia Pollak said. "This was big."

Park officials, who later found the musket and head, believe the figure can be repaired. But it's pretty clear that they're never going to comprehend why someone would do such a thing.

"Could you imagine someone doing this to a World War II memorial or a 9-11 memorial?" asked Kevin P. Tucker of the Massachusetts chapter of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War. "It's ignorance. People don't understand what it's all about."

Well, some of us do. But what can we do about the ones who don't?

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