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Climbing the Herndon Monument | READER COMMENTARY

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The U.S. Naval Academy held the annual Herndon Monument Climb, a traditional culminating event to plebe year on Wednesday, May 17, 2023. (Paul W. Gillespie/Capital Gazette)

The U.S. Naval Academy held the annual Herndon Monument Climb, a traditional culminating event to plebe year on Wednesday, May 17, 2023. (Paul W. Gillespie/Capital Gazette) (Paul W. Gillespie/Capital Gazette)

I found myself surprisingly moved by The Baltimore Sun’s recent photograph of the annual Herndon Monument Climb at the U.S. Naval Academy (”‘We did it!’: Naval Academy Class of 2026 conquers Herndon Monument Climb in 2 hours, 32 minutes,” May 17).

The photo showed a Black female midshipman — supported by a foundation of her Academy peers, predominantly white men — striving and straining to reach the top of the monument.

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The picture seemed a rather moving metaphor for society’s struggles to address our past and perhaps some of our success in doing so.

— Don DeArmon, Frederick

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