Come to Easton June 19 for a march and rally sponsored by the Move the Monument Coalition to demand that the Talbot County Council move the Confederate Monument from the Talbot County Courthouse lawn.
The march will begin at 11 a.m. near Easton Marketplace shopping center, 219 Marlboro Ave., Easton, and end with a rally at noon on the courthouse lawn. Speakers will include Sheree Sample-Hughes, speaker pro tempore of the Maryland House of Delegates; Easton Town Council President Megan Cook; Annapolis-based civil rights activist Carl Snowden; rapper and motivational speaker Devon Beck; the Rev. Elmer Davis, district superintendent of the Easton District of the United Methodist Church, and The Very Rev. Gregory Powell, dean of Trinity Cathedral Easton.
The march and rally is a culmination of the work the coalition has done with the support of hundreds of community members to demand the removal of
The Talbot Boys statue, the last Confederate monument on public property in Maryland. We want to send the message that its current place on the courthouse lawn, a place of justice and equality, does not represent the sentiments of the majority of Talbot County residents.
Our nonpartisan coalition, with about 500 members, represents a wide swath of Talbot County, young and old, black and white, descendants of those named on the monument and relative newcomers. Veterans, historians, lawyers and pastors have spoken at our rallies.
We will encourage social distancing and will distribute masks and hand sanitizer.
For more information, contact: [email protected] Also, visit our Facebook page at Move the Confederate Talbot Boys Monument, or go to our website: https://www.movethemonumenttc.org
Keith Alan Watts, Esq. says
Thank you to the “Move The Monument Coalition” — and their indefatigable efforts to relocate “The Talbot Boys.”
As many, if not most know, “The Talbot Boys” has occupied hallowed ground, situated on the site of The Talbot Slave Market — and since 1916, marring the threshold of the House of Justice.
The Coalition, like the NAACP, the ACLU, the Anti-Defamation League and innumerable religious and community leaders, is a positive force for change, championing our County, State and Nation’s values of inclusion — and advocating against hate and extremism.
“How wonderful it is,” said Anne Frank in her diary, “that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” The Coalition is helping to do just that — “improve our world.”
On Juneteenth, citizens from all over — the County, State, Country and World — will gather in peace in Easton. By their joyful celebration of Juneteenth and non-violent protest of “The Boys,” they hope to show the Talbot County Council the righteousness of this movement — and a path forward.
Not a path where The Council sleepwalks into the gaping abyss and hopeless shame of litigation. Not a path with years of horrifically expensive legal maneuvers. Not a path where badly needed resources that would have benefited schoolchildren, are instead ground to dust and devoured by outside counsel . . . . No.
Instead an exit ramp and graceful way forward. To finally. Get. This. Right. To have that single moment that Anne Frank speaks of — to “improve the world.”
The time is always right,” said Martin Luther King, Jr., “to do what is right.” That time is now. Relocate “The Talbot Boys.” With respect. With dignity.
Bear in mind, moving this “history” does not erase what once was, for nothing can undo that pain. Moving “history” will, however, in so many ways great and small, “improve the world.”
All we have is now. Now is this Council’s chance to lead the healing. And the healing after twenty score and two years is long overdue.
And, what better way to show the healing, the triumph of freedom over slavery, life over death, love over hate than something — Alive. Something alive, that breathes the air we breathe; something alive, rooted in the earth; something alive, that comforts and embraces all, and stretches up, towards Heaven.
Not long ago, after his passing, Easton celebrated Easton Council President John Ford. To celebrate his “Life of Purpose,” Easton planted a tree in “Rails To Trails Park,” near his home.
Why not have the Talbot County Council plant another? A rare and special tree. To grow in front of The Courthouse, on the site of The Talbot Slave Market, where “The Boys” now stand.
Plant a sapling from the tree that stood behind Anne Frank’s house in Amsterdam. The tree Anne looked at every day of her tragically short life, where she and her family hid from the Nazis. Talbot’s “healing tree.”
https://www.annefrank.com/about-us
For Talbot County, Anne Frank’s tree growing near Frederick Douglass would be a living symbol. Of Hope. It would stand as a living, breathing reminder — not just of hope, but of all that is good in the world — and the love for all mankind.
I do not speak for the Move The Monument Coalition. What I can say is, what they do — what we all hope to do — is all for the love of mankind.
Talbot County Councilpersons — the time for hesitation — and hedging — is past. No more sand remains in your hourglass . . . .
I know you have it deep within you. Show us your love for all mankind . . . .
Relocate “The Boys . . . .”
Cathy Mcekrath says
Why???
Keith Alan Watts, Esq. says
Why . . . ???
“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo. “So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide.
All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us . . . .”
Donna Q. Hoatte says
This event has the potential to totally disrupt the lives of many of us. Although listed as beginning at 11 a.m., how long will it take for the over 1,000 people the organizers expect to arrive? The organizers are telling attendees to park at Tred Avon shopping Center –which will disrupt those wanting to go to businesses there. The march will close at least for some period of time Marlboro Ave, and then down onto Washington Street. The downtown area, Washington, Dover and Federal will be tied up for at least 2 hours. Then all those people have to get back to the vehicles that brought them. The estimated cost for the police overtime is over $14,000. Who will pay for that, the taxpayers of Easton.
The request for the permit was brought to a May 18 Town Council meeting, and then passed the next day at a Special Meeting of the Town Council 3-2. How’s that for being willing to accept public input ???? If there had been public input, perhaps the normal, necessary activities of many citizens and business people would have been more important on June 19. rather than what could well be a total mess. Donna Q. Hoatte