If you want to talk about what enslaves us, it’s not those monuments. I believe so often we get caught up in the moment that we as a community take our eyes off the real prize.
In cities across our country, and especially right here in our CSRA, the voices of the people to take down the Confederate monuments – seem to be getting louder and louder. This came after the events in Charlottesville, Va., and now you hear those same voices again after the mayhem that took place at the Capitol nearly two weeks ago.
We have heard people asking for our monument right up I-20 near Atlanta (Stone Mountain) to come down and right here in our backyard hundreds have gathered to protest the Confederate monument that sits on Broad Street in our downtown.
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Personally, I have no issue with the monuments. They do not make or break me – define who I am – or disturb my peace. NPR released a poll that stated 44 percent of Blacks believe Confederate monuments should stay, compared to 40 percent who said take them down. Some say that by being up they celebrate those who supported slavery.
I feel that remembering invokes power and puts us in a place to become thinkers. President George W. Bush said, “A great nation does not hide its history, it faces its flaws and corrects them.” President Bush was right! We connect as a country because we remember.
Now, let me set the record straight – I do not feel the same about waving the Confederate flag as did the jackass who walked into the Capitol with it week before last did. In that case, it was a symbol of hate, civil rebellion and modern-day treason. If you decide you want to have one hanging in your house, wear one on your shirt or even have it on your house – I feel that’s your right. And before you get all huffy and puffy with me about freedom of speech and President Trump getting booted off Twitter, understand – freedom of speech works for YOU. I don’t have to deal with it if I don’t want, just like Twitter doesn’t. Also, freedom of speech does not give you freedom from consequences; let that sink in.
When it’s all said and done – I think we have bigger fish to fry. Statues of dead people don’t scare me, people running into the Capitol – without resistance does. People who hate you because of the color of your skin don’t hate you because of a statue; they hate you because it’s in their heart. They have racial ideologies that are stuck in the 60’s, and that is what we need to work to fix.
We don’t do it by hiding Robert E. Lee in Magnolia Cemetery. We do it by what we did in the last elections. We use the monuments as signs to motivate a culture that has been oppressed for so long. We use them as a torch to ignite a fire that is color blind and only works on changing wrong to right. If we do that, then we realize monuments don’t have to be moved – let the monuments move you.
Michael Meyers is a Columnist for The Augusta Press. Reach him at Michael.meyers@theaugustapress.com
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