Self-Evident

So I'm in Virginia, as previously stated, waiting for the shock to wear off so I can maybe write an entry that isn't full of obvious statements such as "it's hotter down here," and "some people have accents!" Today I walked around the campus, taking pictures, and plopped down under a tree to observe and think.

This university is very different from Case. (again with the obvious statements.) For one, it's a big state university, so a) there are lots of undergrads, b) the undergrads are more your typical college student, which is a kind of person severely underrepresented at Case, c) the campus all matches, architecturally, d) they have this insane hard-on for Jefferson. Now, I can understand putting statues and quotes and things up all over the parts of campus that he actually had a hand in. But when I walked into the aquatic & fitness center I was greeted with foot-high letters telling me that Jefferson would have wanted me to allocate two hours a day for exercise. I feel this is a bit excessive.

The other weird thing is this statue in front of the Rotunda. It's just your standard statue of Jefferson, right, on this plinth thing with angels all around the base, and some writing, and a giant piece of marble. But when you look at it, the angels are all doing funny stuff:

One angel is either waiting to be chained to the statue or has just broken her chains or been let loose. Her right hand appears to be gripping a handhold.

Clockwise around the statue, this angel is ripping up a scroll with a very faint "debt" on it.

Further on, the weirdest angel is blindfolded, with her left fingers in a gun muzzle and something clenched in her right fist. Upon further inspection, she may possibly be testing the theory that all objects fall vertically at the same rate, regardless of their horizontal velocity. This is the only explanation I can think of right now.

The final angel holds a tablet upon which is inscribed "Religious Freedom 1786" and names for God in a number of religions. I find it strange that the angel is holding this tablet, but this one at least makes sense.

I can't find any rhyme or reason to these angels. I could see a pattern for three, maybe: the unchained angel is the United States, because Jefferson was pretty instrumental in securing our freedom, the odd gun-blocking angel is maybe for science (?) and the freedom of religion angel is pretty obvious, actually, because UVa was the first university in the country to be completely secular. But I have no idea about the 'debt' angel, and I'm not sure the gun angel is for science or if she has another meaning. Anyone have any ideas?