Indifference. That was my first reaction to Move the Monument. It has been there for all of my 78 years. My grandmother was a member of the UDC, and as a child I went with her to the meetings. I never connected that with the (statue) until lately. I remember the statue only as a joke clothed in a high school graduation gown, the center of a mystery on the night Robert E. Lee’s “cannon ball” broke off and rolled across the street, or the legend of why it faces toward the northeast.
My indifference has turned now to “relocate the monument.” I do not believe Lee needs to be memorialized on our court square. It is not about erasing history. It’s about our community deciding who we memorialize. It is about understanding that this statue hurts people in our community. We are not responsible for what happened years ago during slavery. But to quote the book “Caste,” “We are responsible for what good or ill we do to people that are alive today. We are responsible for every decision we make that hurts a human being.” Walk in a Black family’s shoes holding their Black child’s hand around the monument, and how would you feel?
I am not concerned with political parties, winning elections or measuring popular opinion. I am concerned with a large portion of our citizens who have been made to feel lesser because that statue exists and that many locals support it. I ask the Fiscal Court to look inward at the harm this statue continues to cause, and I ask you to consider your duty. The results may be a lost election or upset constituents, but the results of executing your duty extend far beyond our small mortal existence.
Melissa Easley
Murray
The foregoing was a "Letter to the Editor" submitted to and printed by the Murray Ledger & Times. The entry has not been edited and is presented as it was printed on the date listed with the entry.
From June 5, 2020, through Sept. 30, 2021, the Murray Ledger & Times printed 50 "Letters to the Editor" related to Murray's Confederate monument. Those 50 letters were written by 38 different people; and of those individuals, 22 were in favor of relocating the monument, 11 wrote in support of it remaining in its present location and five did not take a clear stance on either side. The letter above is part of a collection curated by The Sentinel to provide an overview of the sentiments expressed.
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