[maple_leaf_eh]

This story is about the practise of monuments as simple symbols without recognizing that individual tanks have important singular histories of their own. As I recall, a couple of strong personalities thought a tank is a tank is a tank, and Cookie's story in the Netherlands was undervalued when she was relocated to Italy.

Someone wanted a Sherman as a monument, and followed the path of least resistance to get one. By hook and by crook and by Golly, they were going to got themselves a monument. Supposedly that was going to be the end of the story. Can everyone hear the tinkle of ice in drinks behind the chatter of corporate donors, smell the well-perfumed crowd of onlookers, and hear as the conversation moves on to something else? Some people in some circles don't know what they don't know.

Except, unlike art museums and art dealers exchanging expensive paintings as commodities, there are other people who knew and cared more about what Cookie represented than someone getting a tank plonked down in a public place. I am very pleased the Dutch have been able to correct this mistake, and recover their historic piece.