Tomorrow at 10am the Tarrant County Commissioners will consider the removal of a monument to Confederate soldiers and their descendants on the County Courthouse lawn.
I have communicated to Judge Whitley my belief that the monument must be removed in order for us to move forward as a community. This is a bridge which has to be crossed. And I believe strongly the time is now to do so. To decide against the removal of the monument will only further the pain and anger we now see being expressed within our City and around the country. That is no way forward for us as a community. Removing the monument is the prudent and also right thing to do.
A monument like this was said to be a "sacred" memorial for those who erected it. In the religious sense a sacred object is an outward and visible sign of an inner and invisible spirit. The spirit of the Confederate past that is manifest in this monument is not representative of the spirt of the Fort Worth present, nor its future. It is time that we let the spirit of the Confederacy die and finally and fully embrace a spirit that is truly reflected in the words of the Great Seal of America: "Out of many, One".
Of course the removal of a singular monument is just a single step. But it is a significant one. It is more than "merely" symbolic; it is deeply symbolic.
And it is time . . .
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