The #AlabamaMemorialPreservationAct is bad law that creates even worse results. The spirit of it is wrong. But, if you ever wanted to see what the wrong side of history looks like in video format, here you go. https://twitter.com/agstevemarshall/status/1330922890204745733

Here is a fun fact. The $25,000 fine he argues applies to monuments over 40 years old actually doesn’t apply. It only applies to monuments between 20-40 years old. Also, it only applies to people that didn’t apply for a waiver before removing a 20-40 year old monument.

Don’t believe me? Read it for yourself. The only penalty in the law deals with waiver violations. There is no procedure for getting a waiver for monuments over 40 years old. And there is a reason for that.

Every Confederate monument in Alabama is over 40 years old. The folks who wanted this bill knew that. They also didn’t want to provide a penalty in the law because they didn’t want these “priceless” monuments to have a price tag. Certainly not one has low as $25,000.

The fact that there is neither a penalty nor procedure in the law to alter or remove a Confederate monument over 40 years old was intentional. Also, the fact that there is neither a penalty nor procedure in the law to alter or remove a monument over 40 years old is quite clear.

Again, the folks who wanted this law didn’t want anyone to believe that they could just pay a fine to remove a Confederate monument. You can’t even apply for a waiver to remove it. To some, protecting the Confederacy is much more important than making sure we all have healthcare.

Now, The AG could have said that I need to go get the law changed, as he encourages you to do, because the law is unenforceable. Did he do that? Nope. Instead, he chose to make a specious argument to get a court to change the law to fit his agenda. Unfortunately, it worked.

So, I guess his courage to fight to get the law changed outside of the Legislature is somehow different from someone else’s dedication to their convictions to fight a bad law.

Here we are, in 2020, still fighting the Civil War in Alabama. The spirit of the dead is burying the living.