You Can't Keep a Down Man Good

I had a little trouble finding this Lincoln Park sculpture near the corner of Lincoln Park West and Clark St. It's nestled into a little grassy knoll just off the street, with tall trees on three sides. The recent street construction made the sculpture all but invisible, flanked on the only open side as it was by orange barriers and big yellow earth movers. In fact, the orange metal sculpture looked like part of the construction activity: a spare crane arm or piece of metal waiting to be installed underground. In fact, it is but part of a much larger sculpture exhibition. From the blue plaque on the concrete base, I learned it is one of twenty public sculptures on display as part of the Lakeshore Sculpture Exhibit (LSE) sponsored by the Mid-North Neighborhood Association. All the sculptures will be on sale at the conclusion of the exhibition in spring of 2009. Should I assume that money goes back to the private sources from which the funding came? I'll show you more of this exhibition in next week's entry.
A close inspection of the piece found the title inscribed on the base of the metal, "You Can't Keep a Down Man Good." The reversed maxim has an ominous, vaguely threatening implication, especially coming from what by name seems to be a Native American artist. Is Ted Sitting Crow Garner saying that the "Down Man" (oppressed? depressed?) will by necessity (or will) resort to "Bad" (violent? corrupt? self-destructive?) behavior? And what does the orange metal machine-arm-like structure have to do with his statement? Should the rich and the white be wary of the tools of the construction trade as potential instruments of their demise? Will the luxury living units along Chicago's north lakeshore fall to the malicious intent of a bulldozer or a crane, or will their homes, landscaping, roads and signs just continue to be immaculately improved year after year by members of the working class struggling to feed their families? Tell will time.