I keep rolling around in my mind how heartless and unfeeling our three council holdouts and their supporters are on moving the Talbot Boys.
All around America officials seem to get it. The damned confederate flag is a painful and hurtful symbol to many.
Just for comparison, if Nazi swastikas were displayed at public places all of us would stand up for our Jewish friends and the ugly things would be banished wouldn’t they?
So why the special blind eye here in Talbot County? Some recently claim that we are unique in our history. Unique to the point that we could even market it! Give me a break.
How many counties in the border states had Black, Union and Confederate soldiers? Most I bet. We are only unique in that we have a small supply of Confederate history-buff ancestors full of extra supremacy and entitlement in them.
Move the monument and its flag now. Preserve your history any way you want, anywhere but at the courthouse. Let’s stop ruining the caring genteel reputation of this community right now. I will happily contribute to a move now.
Totch Hartge
Easton
David Tull says
Our history is important no matter how ugly or how good it’s part of the fabric of this Great Nation.
Michael Davis says
The monument has nothing to do with the fabric of our Great Nation. Seriously, a generic off-the-shelf monument purchased during Jim Crow days is not a national landmark and it will never be one. It is junk that could easily be moved to the front lawn of any PTH member and still represent what the PTH members think it represents. That may reduce the property value of the PTH member who voluntarily takes the statue, but hey, are you going to walk the walk or just talk the talk?
Kate LaMotte says
Spot on! Thank you!
Stephen Schaare says
Hi Keith Alan Watts, Anticipating your “free verse” on this submission.
“Talbot Boys”. You must have something to say.
Jim Richardson says
Thanks Totch!
I would like to address those people who oppose removing the Confederate statue: our history is important, I agree. But the parts of our history that are ugly, should not be honored by statues placed on public land where all can see. No one wants to erase our history, Let me repeat: no one wants to erase our history! We are simply asking our elected leaders,(council members) to remove this ugly symbol of hate from our courthouse lawn, a place of honor. It’s not that complicated.Take it down now!
Keith Alan Watts says
An Open Letter To The Talbot County Council
* * * *
Fear.
It starts in the morning when you awake. Down there. In the pit of your stomach. A wriggle, like an angry eel — fighting to get out . . . .
Fear . .
“What will my friends think of me if I change my mind? My vote? Who won’t speak to me any more? Who will glare at me in the produce aisle? Or when I walk the dog? Or when I’m at my kid’s recital — or swim meet — or volunteer fire barbecue — or church choir practice?
Fear . . .
“I’ll lose an election over this. I’ll be less of a person. I’ll lose face. Who cares if Nixon went to China? Or that the Berlin Wall came down? I’ll be irrelevant. I won’t matter any more. My business will suffer . . . .”
Fear . . . .
“How do I tell my grandchildren? What do I tell them?”
Fear . . . . .
“I’m not. A Racist. Or Mean. Or Evil. Or Malicious. Am I? I’m well-meaning. And caring. And loving. I am, right? Right?”
Fear . . . . . .
The only thing to fear, is the fear you carry with you. Why continue to doom oneself to the fate of Sisyphus?
Fear . . . . . . .
Sisyphus’s tragedy was that he never figured out — through all eternity — that he, he could put the rock down . . . .
Fear . . . . . . .
“What will I do without my rock? My “Boyz?” My “Emerald Albatross.” I sometimes feel like those “Boyz” look — green.”
Put. The Rock. Down. See what that, feels like.
Euphoria, for a change . . . .
Eva M. Smorzaniuk, MD says
Agree completely, Mr. Hartge! Maryland was one of 5 border states that never officially seceded. All sent a far greater number to fight for the Union rather than the Confederacy. Moving the monument is not erasing history, but, rather, illuminating the ugly history of the Jim Crow era. As a symbol of white supremacy and black suppression, it has no place on our courthouse property.
Gary says
Or any federal, state or local property. In short NOWHERE!
Eric says
Please don’t even compare this to the Nazi swastika. Although using this comparison is very dramatic, think about it.
Jane Ann Jones says
And I will happily contribute to preserve the Talbot Boys because you should never try to remove or erase history. Instead learn from its ugly and inhumane past. Not just here but all over the world.
Install better descriptions of what you are looking at so people understand the true reality of what occurred.
I constantly visualize the black and white photo of a Confederate soldier sitting next to a Union soldier. Young men, chatting together before heading out to fight again.
Did they die or live?
History is often hideous. Just explain the statue and let it stand.
I am English and am ashamed of how brutal we were in times gone by.
Learn from history.
Keith Alan Watts says
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/06/04/bristol-edward-colston-statue-museum/%3foutputType=amp
An “English” solution . . . in an appropriate setting . . . .