In case you missed it, last Tuesday, the Georgia state Supreme Court passed down a ruling on the matter of whether or not the Confederate memorial statue located in the Covington Square should or should not remain.
If you were looking for a nice, neat bow of a ruling that brought the matter to a swift, hard conclusion, then you might have been a bit disappointed as Tuesday’s ruling only signaled that the matter is not over.
In fact, the meat of the matter may just be getting started. And, if you ask me, that’s quite alright. I’ll tell you why.
Newton County hasn’t been the first community to have to deal with the sharp controversy and strong feelings that get elicited when it comes to discussing the removal or remaining of Confederate monuments. It won’t be the last. But what we can be is the model.
We can be the model for handling a sensitive subject with wildly differing viewpoints in a spirit of civility, if not congeniality.
We can become a shining example to a politically polarized and divided nation that differences don’t have to be detrimental to our ability to live and co-exist in an otherwise amazing community.
Tuesday’s ruling only served as a set up to a renewed round of discussion and litigation about whether or not the statue that’s been standing at the Square’s center since 1906 will remain.
Regardless of what side of the fence you’re on here, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
The best thing that could’ve happened in this case happened back in July 2020 when Newton County Superior Court Judge John Ott said, in so many words, that nothing should be done to the statue until all sides of the case could be heard and all appeals exhausted so that “the rule of law” will provide the final say.
I’m prepared to take a few hits for saying that that is exactly the way it should be. I, like you, have my own personal thoughts and opinions about Confederate memorials and their place in public spaces. But ultimately, our thoughts and opinions — while important — can’t, alone be the deciding factor in how things happen with regard to this matter.
That is, if we want to be that shining example that I spoke about earlier.
And, in many ways, we already have been. The way Judge Ott ruled on this 2 1/2 years ago proves that we can be that. It’s better, for the sake of civility, than how other communities have gone about handling Confederate memorials.
As recently as August, a Confederate monument in Enfield, North Carolina was bulldozed in front of a Facebook Live broadcast shared by Enfield Mayor Mondale Robinson. The town’s board of commissioners voted 4-1 to remove the statue in an August 15 meeting, according to the Charlotte News Observer.
Several others in places like Jacksonville, Florida, Baltimore, Maryland and on the campus of the University of Texas-Austin saw similar monuments removed in the middle of the night.
Closer to home, a Confederate statue in Henry County, Georgia (McDonough) was removed in similar fashion, in the middle of the night, as was one in DeKalb County after Superior Court Judge Clarence Seeliger ordered its removal in March 2021 following a complaint filed by the City of Decatur.
They got what they wanted. But at what cost? Did the way it happened do more to unify or did it create deeper wedges of division and make everyone on either side dig their heels in just a little deeper?
For me, the matter of civility and the law doing its work isn’t about whether or not I personally believe the statue should come down. As stated, I have my own personal beliefs about such memorials. I’ve got my own personal feelings about what goes on in my heart and mind when I see Confederate flags flying freely in various parts of the state — a sight once foreign to a Nebraska boy who grew up in the Midwest in the 1980s and 90s.
This is about due process. This is about being able to restore some sort of faith in an America that can actually stand in the middle of hard matters, have dissenting viewpoints, not always getting our way and still be able to walk away not feeling as if the “other side” hates our nation.
Covington resident, Tiffany Humphries — the one who’s lawsuit was able to persist after the dismissal of a Sons of Confederate Veterans’ complaint — expressed excitement that, due to the Court’s ruling, “our case will now be tried on the facts and the law.”
She went on to say that “Today’s decision is proof that our system works.”
I know some who will wholeheartedly agree with that statement, while others will meet it with far less enthusiasm. But here’s the thing: Both sides of the spectrum should be allowed to feel what they feel. Both sides shouldn’t have to be crucified for what they believe.
Both sides should be able to, at least hear and seek to understand the other. That’s what is supposed to separate the United States from other countries and governing bodies. It’s also what’s been eroded from our discourse over the last 15 years of political unrest in this nation.
The middle has all but disappeared, and in some cases, is presented as a hiding spot for the spineless. That couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, the truth is often residing in the middle, waiting for people from either extreme to stop trying to win the shouting match long enough to come and find it.
This case is far from over. But Newton County’s time in the spotlight to show a polarized nation how civility in the face of tension and controversy is done is just beginning.
Gabriel Stovall is the publisher and editor of The Covington News. He can be reached at gstovall@covnews.com.
