Since the rally around Robert E. Lee's statue in Charlottesville, Virginia, there's been a rise in vandalism to historic statues and monuments around the nation. A two century old statue of Christopher Columbus was smashed in Baltimore. The Lincoln Memorial in DC, a bust of Lincoln in Chicago and a statue of a Franciscan priest in California were all recently vandalized. Glass was shattered at the Boston Holocaust Museum and a mob in Atlanta attacked the Peace Monument that depicts a Confederate soldier laying down his arms. In each case, violence is being employed to make a political point. But in the United States, we live under the rule of law and we do things in an orderly way. We oppose thuggery and mob rule. Our nation can withstand bad ideas. We can withstand poor leadership. What we cannot endure is the normalization of political violence.