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July 2, 2025

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8 Letters to Editor

Letter to Editor: Chestertown BLM Mural vs. Talbot Boys

August 15, 2020 by Letter to Editor

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As the Chestertown Town Council voted to approve two Black Lives Matter street murals, the Talbot County Council voted not to remove its Confederate monument in Easton, the “Talbot Boys” statue.

The Baltimore Sun headlined its report on this on August 15: “After debate, Chestertown gives OK to BLM murals” followed by “Talbot County opts to keep monument that honors Confederacy.”

Surely, a tale of two cities, with one wide awake and the other shamefully aslumber.

Grenville B. Whitman
Rock Hall

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Filed Under: 8 Letters to Editor

Spy COVID-19 Daily Update Aug. 14 Delmarva Review: Why Do I Need Poetry Anyway, By Chris Jansen

Letters to Editor

  1. Bill Witicker says

    August 15, 2020 at 3:12 PM

    Seems to me that Rock Hall is still in hibernation…I don’t see anything out of that town

    • Barbara says

      August 15, 2020 at 8:48 PM

      Why is that important? Why do any of the countries cities vote- change- run. Scared? We are civilized and in all the cities I’ve been in I find the people of color incredibly beautiful people. So why do we bring this idea that black lives matter to the center of the towns streets. They do matter. But when did a policeman abuse any one of them. We all matter want peace and left alone to live and work and feel safe. From our white and black neighbors.

  2. Eleanor Altman says

    August 15, 2020 at 3:13 PM

    Agree, Mr. Whitman. Kudos to Kent Countians. Leaves one wondering if Talbot citiens will ever catch up with history. Frederick Douglass has rolled over in his grave many times witnessing repeatedly Talbot’s inability to attempt to right wrongs.

  3. Dan Egan says

    August 15, 2020 at 3:19 PM

    Would BLM, ANTIFA,LGBT, Etc. be satisfied if all normal ,straight, white people commited suicide? If so , suuicide just may be worth it!

    • Valerie Overton says

      August 15, 2020 at 5:40 PM

      “ The truth unquestionably is, that the only path to a subversion of the republican system of the Country is, by flattering the prejudices of the people, and exciting their jealousies and apprehensions, to throw affairs into confusion, and bring on civil commotion.” Alexander Hamilton 08.17.1792

    • Jay Ell says

      August 16, 2020 at 3:39 PM

      What a histrionic and melodramatic response to people simply wanting the rights that straight white people have enjoyed all along.

  4. Alice Marie Barron says

    August 15, 2020 at 5:16 PM

    Many, many years ago the great paintings of the world would also been destroyed …. Thank GOODNESS we still have the Rubins and Rembrants and all the others…. What will the next generation have??? Certainly not HISTORY>

    • Deirdre LaMotte says

      August 16, 2020 at 1:08 AM

      The Confederate statues are the rewriting of history. Daughters of the Confederacy and other lineage societies paid for monuments years after their loss in order to assign an shiny, patriotic veneer to the Confederacy. If you want “historical” accuracies read accounts of what life was like for millions under its regime. It is a sickening and shameful story of our past. And none of it should be honored on public land.

  5. Rich Bolton says

    August 15, 2020 at 10:55 PM

    Blind followers.. it’s impossible to erase history.
    Honest polotically impartial education must come before we destroy our country..
    How about an AMEN

  6. Marge Frybarger says

    August 15, 2020 at 11:16 PM

    Why do we need to venerate traitors? Why not accept that some of our ancestors’ choices were hideous and we want a better present and future for our children and everyone else? What’s so difficult about admitting Jim Crow laws were WRONG and all the ugliness and hate needs to stop now? Easton can still learn from history without choosing to be stuck in a hateful past. I feel proud for Kent County; it’s a start.

  7. Yassa Dasmibebe says

    August 16, 2020 at 1:50 AM

    Of course – modern racism is fine – HISTORY must be destroyed.

    It was really READY for Chestertown Leftists to “TDRT” when the alternative is importing outside agitators & burning half the town.

    I’m waiting to see how they respond to every other Officially-Sanctioned Victim-Group and the countless possible permutations If Identity-Politics when EVERYBODY wants people that THEIR lives matter too.

  8. Todd Hughes says

    August 16, 2020 at 4:29 AM

    I read now how the Black Lives Matter protestors, the group that the Chestertown Town Council have aligned themselves with, are marching in residential neighborhoods of Seattle destroying white businesses as they are chanting for White people to give up their homes to the black people that used to live there.
    This is the group that the Chestertown Town Council chooses to honor by painting our streets?

    • Ron Jordan says

      August 16, 2020 at 8:32 AM

      The very reason that Chestertown has move to change their past and moving to a more enlightened future is the ability by many of its citizens to get outside the bubble of ignorance and stupidity that eastern shore culture has bred. Todd, do you go anywhere or do you just read or speculate in that small mind of yours of what you think folks in Chestertown participated in? So, Todd when you make a statement as you did in your comments, please in the nature of fair play, cite your sources. Don’t make a statement that is daming without any pertinent facts. Know who you speak of, why you would speak with such disdain and contempt for those you have no knowledge of and if you do, why are you so immature and dismissive in your comments about what Chestertown is doing. The old saying is this, “get your own house in order before you come and mess up mine.”

  9. Terri Long says

    August 16, 2020 at 6:38 AM

    There is a reason Poland and Germany chose to NOT tear down the concentration camps. They wanted to preserve the history so that we would never forget the audacity of the Holocaust. History should not be forgotten and learned from. Why can’t we have both the statue to preserve history and the murals to show we are learning and moving forward?

    • Deirdre LaMotte says

      August 16, 2020 at 1:05 PM

      The US has not “torn down” Plantations have they? No. And you would not see statues honoring
      SS member in Europe either.

      • Terri Long says

        August 16, 2020 at 7:52 PM

        The comparison of plantations and concentration camps is an inaccurate comparison several reasons. First, the US did not own the plantations. They were owned by private citizens. Therefore, the US had no right to tear them down. Second, the plantations that the National Park Service currently own are used as educational tools to teach the history of the era (the good, the bad and the ugly). Third, plantations served as a powerful economic force inappropriately born on the back of the slaves. Concentration camps serviced no positive purpose at all.

        • Deirdre LaMotte says

          August 17, 2020 at 9:08 AM

          Oh please. Stop splitting hairs . Confederate (racist) monuments have no place on public land.
          Period.

        • Gren Whitman says

          August 17, 2020 at 2:00 PM

          Nazi concentration camps and Southern plantations both used forced labor, i.e., slave labor.
          And I agree with Deirdre: monuments extolling anything related to the Confederacy should not remain on public land.

  10. Brian Cole says

    August 16, 2020 at 7:22 AM

    At what point will the New Socilist Democrats be satisfied? What is next? what is the true root of the problem What? What is the next thing that will make the family unit whole again? What actions will bring the morals of humanity back? Do we need to reset back to 0? I do not know the answer. However I do not feel the path being laid out by the new Democrats is one worth following. This path has had several scenarios played out around the world at a cost of many lives. The winners are always the elite. IMHO.

    • Ron Jordan says

      August 16, 2020 at 8:42 AM

      Brian, are you daft man. The Dems and the Republicans have many voices within their respective parties. The Dems are “not” and repeat “not” New Socialist Democrats. Where did that definition come from, oh, in the inner and deep seated gray matter you defer to as a brain? You insult me and many like me that are Dems and more moderate to progressive in our politics. Should I just call you a bigot and be done with you and your comments? No, that would be as insulting as you were in your comments. I don’t know you, haven’t had the pleasure and may not ever make your acquaintance but if I do, I can then make a decision about you when we meet, not assume that your comments are indicative of you and your Party affiliation. The GOP are not all racists, misogynistic,bigots and adulterers, like our current resident in the WH. I don’t pretend to believe that even if you think his policies are good for you, they are not good for me as a African-American, a business man nor as a citizen of the eastern shore and Chestertown. Make statements based in truth and cite publications that all readers can believe have validity and truth attached to them, not some QAnnon conspiracy theories from Rush and Jones.

  11. Ron Jordan says

    August 16, 2020 at 8:42 AM

    The very reason that Chestertown has move to change their past and moving to a more enlightened future is the ability by many of its citizens to get outside the bubble of ignorance and stupidity that eastern shore culture has bred. Todd, do you go anywhere or do you just read or speculate in that small mind of yours of what you think folks in Chestertown participated in? So, Todd when you make a statement as you did in your comments, please in the nature of fair play, cite your sources. Don’t make a statement that is daming without any pertinent facts. Know who you speak of, why you would speak with such disdain and contempt for those you have no knowledge of and if you do, why are you so immature and dismissive in your comments about what Chestertown is doing. The old saying is this, “get your own house in order before you come and mess up mine.”

  12. Miles Barnard says

    August 16, 2020 at 3:23 PM

    The Talbot Boys monument question is an interesting one because the front lawn of the courthouse is flanked on the other side by Frederick Douglas. I’ll bet he is only 50′ away at most! If the Talbot Boys stay in the long run this seems like an educational opportunity with new signage.

  13. Patricia Heaps says

    August 17, 2020 at 2:55 PM

    So, while one commenter says Confederate statues should not be honored on public land, I’m wondering why BLM should be honored on public land. I know the media tries to keep it on the down-low, but recent riots in Portland and Seattle are under the BLM banner and they ceased to be about black lives a long time ago. And has anyone looked closely at the “organization” or did they just kneel like everyone else?

    Seattle BLM protesters march through residential neighborhoods and demand white people give up their homes. “Give up your house. Give Black people back their homes.” “what are you going to do about it? Open up your wallets.”

    “Portland BLM thugs harass black man and call him the N-word for defending white woman who’d been beaten and robbed”

    And my favorite, from Chicago last week:

    “I don’t care if someone decides to loot a Gucci or a Macy’s or a Nike store, because that makes sure that person eats,” said BLM organizer Ariel Atkins. “That makes sure that person has clothes. Anything they wanted to take, they can take it because these businesses have insurance.”

    Yes, nothing says racial and social justice like a Gucci handbag.

    These are just three cities – there are others. I find it very disappointing that this is being supported but everyone else has “taken a knee to BLM”, why not Chestertown?

    • Deirdre LaMotte says

      August 17, 2020 at 8:35 PM

      You are listening to a network that promotes anti-BLM;” the left is rioting and trying to take
      people’s houses”. I can say there will always be agitators…but the protest in every city
      have been mostly “peaceful”. Until the armed police and far-right showed up. I know, my son experienced this first hand in Portland. How easy to follow the salacious and not zero in on our broken country.
      Look at Trump. Does he seek mutual understanding? Of course not, he is encouraging discord and confusion. Keep looking
      at the fact: Black people are harassed and killed because of their race. And their race keeps them from enjoying the full benefits of our society.

      Why the heck is this so difficult for a minority of citizens to understand? I believe they do not want to.

      And I will say this as a mother of three adults. I would consider myself a failure as a parent if
      I had raised a person who supported such hate.

      • Patricia Heaps says

        August 18, 2020 at 8:26 AM

        “It is usually futile to try to talk facts and analysis to people who are enjoying a sense of moral superiority in their ignorance.” – Thomas Sowell

        Mutual understanding? You don’t GET a bigger threat to democracy than people who–without any democratic process–decide who gets looted, what statues to pull down, which laws are and aren’t enforced, and what lives actually do matter. “Mostly peaceful” is like “a little bit pregnant”

        When I look at Trump, I see the lowest Black unemployment numbers of my lifetime. I see The First Step Act (FSA), a significant bi-partisan legislation promoting criminal justice reform. The discord and confusion I see is in those who riot and loot in the name of racial justice. Tell me again how a Louis Vuitton suitcase allows people to eat?

        • Deirdre LaMotte says

          August 18, 2020 at 2:56 PM

          Your support of Tump and your continued focus on elements of our society who loot is quite revealing.You like having looters, right? Just like Trump enjoys them…that way one doesn’t have to face the
          issue of 1. Police brutality and 2. Trump’s total lack of ability to be President of anything. He knows how he
          screwed up our Covid response. Now he needs a wedge so that his manipulated followers feel better about themselves.

          Nothing like fears, lies, bigotry and misogyny to keep that pot stirred.

          • Patricia Heaps says

            August 19, 2020 at 7:42 AM

            Sure, I’ll focus on looters and rioters since the MSM will not. Let’s look at those – Ayanna Pressley – who are calling for more “unrest” in the streets. Let’s look at those who will not denounce the violence – Maisie Hirono. Let’s look at the 23 people killed in the “peaceful” protests – or almost killed like the man in Portland who crashed his truck and the mob pulled him out and beat him senseless. All under the banner of BLM and under the benevolent gaze of the Democrat party.

            And how did Trump screw up the Covid response? By following WHO, CDC and Dr Fauci – all who have flip-flopped several times on what needed to be done and even now, they still don’t know? By listening to these esteemed scientists who want us to believe that this virus is so much more deadly than the viruses we face every day – it’s not. Remember the prediction that 2 million people would die? And silence for Nancy Pelosi dancing through Chinatown, telling us to come celebrate because there was nothing to worry about and if we didn’t we were racists.

            Police brutality? Nine unarmed men whose killers are in jail or do you prefer the narrative that thousands are killed by police every year?

            But you do you and support Biden, another train wreck that the MSM wants us to believe is competent and viable. While the decline in his cognitive abilities is bad enough, one only has to look at his history as a legislator to get a good idea of who Joe is. As the saying goes, 48 years in government but now he’s going to “fix” everything?

            You need to read something besides the Huffington Post. I’m taking my chances with President Trump.

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