About Time!

Photo: © Stan Banos    6/10/19

I think it wiser,” the retired military leader wrote about a proposed Gettysburg memorial in 1869, “…not to keep open the sores of war but to follow the examples of those nations who endeavored to obliterate the marks of civil strife, to commit to oblivion the feelings engendered.  -Robert E. Lee

About fuckin' time it came down!!! Took this shot a year ago in Montgomery, AL. A statue of a terrorist traitor standing tall before a US HS dedicated in his name. Imagine, just imagine, being a Black student going to a school dedicated to the man who fought to keep you and every one of your ancestors and family in chains for... perpetuity. Imagine having to pass that statue every goddamn day to do time in an institution named to honor his 'ideals,' only to pass him on the way out again; all the while knowing that the people who work there, the very people teaching you, also look up to him as a goddamn fuckin' hero! 'Cause if otherwise, they themselves would have done the right thing, the moral thing, the only proper and ethical thing- and tore it the fuck down themselves to set the proper example. Joe Pernell has every goddamn reason in the world to smile and be proud! 

Now... when are they gonna give that school a proper name? Is it really that hard to find someone who doesn't represent every racist's dream of standing on the necks of the largest percentage of their student population? How about- naming it after any one of the people commemorated in this nearby institution?

PS- And while they're wracking their mighty minds for a name- when is Montgomery going to condemn and raze the adjacent, bed bug infested Red Roof Inn? Made sure to throw out the suitcase after that trip!