Move On
You say you want to move on.
Move on from slavery, from racism.
“It was so long ago. Keep it in the past,” you say insidiously.
But I can’t take you seriously,
because those golden-sculpted leaders proudly wagging their red and white crossed flag of the Confederacy
stand just over the streets where so many were made to bleed.
You say you want to move on.
then why are the villains of our very history,
honored so heroically?
Why are the villains of our very history,
monumented more than James Reeb, Viola Liuzzo, Jimmie Lee Jackson, and the millions of others who died just for equality?
Why is it that the first thing children in Montgomery see throughout their city is the statues of Jefferson Davis and J. Marion Sims?
The president of the Confederacy,
the false father of gynecology?
What are you teaching them to believe?
Do you believe that J. Marion Sims could have made those medical advancements,
without taking advantage of those eleven enslaved women?
Then, tell me, why is their statue tucked away on 17 Mildred Street,
while J. Marion Sims stands proudly at the foot of the Alabama State House?
Why do those who died fighting in the Confederacy,
receive more memorialization than those in the Union?
Because while standing in the Alabama State House grounds,
I found myself surrounded by men who were greedy, who rather fight and die to preserve their power;
Who rather fight and die than face the immorality of their actions.
I ask you: What about that is memorable?
You say you want to move on,
but Confederate flags still fly at Stone Mountain,
neighbored by the flags of the United States and Georgia.
You say you want to move on,
yet the Sons of the Confederate Veterans met up there
just a few weeks ago.
A few weeks ago.
To do what?
Perpetuate the ideals of their Confederate ancestors.
The Confederacy lost the Civil War in 1865.
It’s 2022.
Move on.