Rebuild the Georgia Guidestones
The Georgia Guidestones was a granite monument that stood in Elbert County, Georgia, from 1980 to 2022. They were originally financed by a man who went by the pseudonym "Robert C. Christian" who claimed to represent "a small group of loyal Americans." He commissioned the Elberton Granite Finishing Company to quarry, carve, and erect six stones - four stones each bearing a list of instructions in two languages for a total of eight (English, Spanish, Swahili, Hindi, Hebrew, Arabic, Chinese, and Russian). The instructions supposedly would allow humanity to rebuild civilization if it were to ever be wiped out. A central gnomon had openings through which sunlight marked the celestial pole, the days of the year, and the equinoxes. These five pillars were covered by a capstone. A small granite plaque to the side provided a brief explanation.
The Guidestones attracted around 20,000 visitors annually to this very rural and out-of-the way area. Because of the implications of some of the wording, and the mystery of who commissioned them, the Guidestones also attracted the ire of several religious leaders and politicians, some of whom called for their destruction. The Guidestones were spray-painted in 2008 and 2014, and early in the morning of July 6, 2022, an unidentified person damaged one of the pillars with a bomb. The county determined that the monument was now unsafe, and completely demolished it. The remaining pieces are now being stored by the Elberton Granite Association, an organization representing the local granite industry. While the mayor of Elberton expressed interest in rebuilding them, the city council voted to return the land on which they stood to the farmer who had originally sold the five-acre parcel to the county for $5000.
Since the monument was owned by the county, it was considered a public building, so damaging it would carry a sentence of 20 years. However, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation has apparently made no progress in finding the perpetrator, despite having video footage of his car as well as a figure placing the bomb. There doesn't seem to be much interest in rebuilding them, and the county lacks the resources to do this on their own anyway.
Despite having lived in Georgia for 14 years, I never got around to seeing the Guidestones as their location was far away from where I live and not close to anywhere else I was going. It's a shame that such a unique monument, intended to last for thousands of years, can cease to exist because of ignorance and religiously-motivated conspiracy theories. I've been thinking of ways to finance their rebuilding. There's an unsubstantiated theory that Ted Turner originally paid for them; he would certainly have the resources to rebuild them. Yoko Ono is apparently also a fan of the Guidestones, having mentioned them in a song she wrote.
If the Guidestones are ever rebuilt, I would suggest erecting them elsewhere. Their astronomical properties would be more apparent in a desert area with less typical cloud cover, like the Southwest. There's also no reason they have to be made of granite; reinforced concrete would be much cheaper and if cured properly, just as durable. Unfortunately, the Elberton Granite Finishing Company no longer exists, and Robert C. Christian's original ten page schematic was not preserved. However, the Guidestones' size, design, and astronomical properties are well-known, and their construction would not be difficult to reverse engineer.
The Guidestones were a mysterious, unique landmark that represented the affirmation of life and a vision of humanity's survival. Rebuilding them would be a statement that cooperation and the quest for understanding will prevail over the forces of hatred and ignorance.
