Query: Has the Talbot County Council, Citizens, Residents and Taxpayers been made aware of the following? To wit, if the County loses the lawsuit over the relocation of the Confederate Monument currently gracing the entrance to our Hall of Justice — the Court may order the County to pay not only the attorneys the County has retained — but Plaintiffs’ and Plaintiffs’ attorneys’ fees and costs as well.
In others words, the County will pay for two and perhaps more sets of attorneys, paralegals, secretaries, filing fees, copies, etc. Perhaps the County Council, County Counsel and/or Counsel retained by the County can advise as to the tab to date?
Our meter is running.
Keith Watts
Tilghman Island
Jay Holt says
It’s the flag. The Battle Flag of the Army of Northern Virginia has been usurped by white supremacists. Untill that linkage can be broken that flag can’t fly on our courthouse lawn.
Paul Callahan says
Jay, I agree 100%, it is the flag that has become an offensive symbol. If the issue was confined to the flag I could support the removal or modification of the flag as I believe many in our county would.
Unfortunately those working to remove the monument are also promoting an extremist narrative of our history, one based solely on hatred and racism. Make no mistake, there was plenty of racism in our history, but this false narrative promotes an extremist version where everything and anything was solely intended to degenerate black people.
Their version of our history paints our ancestors as horned red eyed devils so intent on promoting racism and white supremacy that they were totally incapable of establishing a simple war memorial, or had any concern for the extremely important Constitutional crises unfolding in their midst. No everything our ancestors did, said, thought or created from the time of the civil war and for a 100 years afterwards was solely intended to further racism and supremacy – there can no other motivation or narrative.
This narrative of extreme hate, racism and supremacy also happens to support a political agenda this group is furthering.
Paul Callahan says
Keith, During Maryland’s occupation during the US Civil war, thousands of Marylanders were imprisoned without charges, some were executed and others exiled from their homeland. Hundred’s of woman were raped and assaulted by the occupying forces. The first and second amendments along with all basic Constitutional rights of Marylanders were denied them by the very government that was established and sworn to protect such rights. Maryland’s democratically elected leaders were imprisoned and replaced. Maryland’s elections were manipulated to ensure a favorable outcome for the political party in power.
Thousands of Marylanders were killed or maimed fighting for a cause. Some fought for the ideal that the Union of States could never be broken, others fought for the inalienable right of the people to choose their government as stated by the Founding Fathers in our Declaration of Independence, and others fought because of the severe Constitutional abuses inflicted upon Maryland and her citizens. The Maryland legislature proclaimed shortly before their arrest “If this could happen to Maryland, what State could ever be free?”
This is our history, it is incredibly unique for our Nation and is a blueprint for generations to come exactly how their freedoms and our Democracy could perish. It is a history that everyone can learn from regardless of race or political persuasion.
This is also the history that is not be tolerated by a small group which is working vehemently to change into something solely based on racial hatred, not to further truth but to further an agenda which they forward. This group furthers the concept that there is no use for history and it should be modified to manipulate the masses to support their cause and policies.
Yet you complain of the “cost” of litigation, a process brought upon our county by a few to impose upon the citizens of Talbot their will, not the will of the majority but their will after they failed through the democratic process. Their motivation is not truth but an agenda which they feel is so righteous they believe any means is justified if it supports the end. They seek to legitimize their historical narrative of hate so they can further enrage and divide our citizens to suite and support their purpose.
Keith, I must remind you that Democracy is not free. There is a high cost for freedom paid both in dollars and in blood. Americans have paid this price with their blood, their limbs and their lives so that you can have the right to publish your thoughts and beliefs without fear of imprisonment or execution because you spoke against the established authority or their policies and as Marylanders experienced during the the Civil War.
Bill Aiken says
Put this monument in a museum, not in the courtyard pf the justice center. Whatever rationale you want to fabricate about the mistreatment of Marylanders in wartime, the meaning of this battle flag is white supremacy. Put it in a museum
Paul Callahan says
Considering the historical fact that 125 Federal troops surrounded that courthouse, beat and imprisoned our judge for his attempts to uphold the US Constitution, along with the fact that nearly two thirds of the Talbot Boys enlisted for the confederacy within a few months of that incredible event, obviously motivate by that event along with all of the other Constitutional abuses inflicted against the Maryland government and her citizens, I would say that the Talbot Boys monument is exactly in the place where it needs to be.
For those of you that know or care little about Maryland and Talbot History (are you even from Talbot?) you seem to be very open to false narratives of why these men fought and why that monument is at the front of our courthouse. Who is not for the concept of racial justice? It is easy to get sucked in thinking you are doing so much good for the community – but are you?
For us who actually know our own history, we fully understand that these Americans from Talbot, some of which were direct descendants of our Revolutionary War patriots, resisted the tyrannical denial of their Constitutional rights and the manipulation of the democratic process in Maryland. Unlawful acts committed against them by the very government that was established to protect those rights and freedoms.
Let the Boys stand at the front of our Courthouse as a reminder to all that if our government ever again commits’ such abusive unconstitutional acts, as occurred there on 27 May 1862, the ultimate responsibility to protect our freedoms and our Constitution rests upon the shoulders of our citizens. If such abuses are ever again inflicted upon our citizens by our government, I can assure you both white’s and blacks, men and woman, will join together, as Americans, to resist.
Not everything is about racism.