What are we memorializing?

In April 2017, the Alabama House was embroiled in a torrid and tension saturated three-hour meeting wherein the House approved a bill designed to prohibit removing monuments and historic structures constructed on public property by a 68-29 vote. The bill’s purported objective: preserve history, learn from great achievements, but learn from the state’s mistakes and the state’s darkest hours. Ugh. Is that statement credible?

In 2019, the Alabama Supreme Court voted 9-0 Birmingham violated state law when it obscured the inscriptions etched on a Confederate monument, which has stood for over a century. The court fined Birmingham $25,000.