20200708 WRITING - DAY 8

Yesterday's edited work:

My Black Tee Shirt

Everyone I know has a collection of seldom-worn tee-shirts.  I must have a hundred tees (stored stacked, stuffed and stashed) (in various places) around my bedroom.  The nice ones get a hanger in my closet.  The less-frequently-worn ones get folded and stored in a dresser drawer, seldom opened.  And the worn out ones occupy a shelf near my gym stuff.  And this is where my black tee shirt has been for the last several years.

It was given to me years ago by my former significant other, Ed.  It's jet black, with a white image of 3 men on horseback, and in large white letters GEORGIA'S STONE MOUNTAIN.  I'm wondering now if the colors have significance.  Ed had visited Atlanta on business, and had gone to see the Stone Mountain monument which has carvings of 3 confederate generals on horseback. He brought me back the tee shirt as a "trip gift."

Until the other day, I had never bothered to ask myself or anyone about the monument.  I had not known that it was a monument to these three confederates, who were enemies of the Union. They supported slavery, and they fought against freedom and equality for black Americans.  But I ignorantly wore my black tee shirt to the gym.

We Americans are considering whether we should have public emblems and monuments honoring confederate soldiers and leaders AT ALL.  Mississippi decided recently to remove the confederate part of their State flag.  Wow - more than 150 years after the South lost the Civil War!  And some STILL want to keep the flag, and the monuments.

My black tee shirt was a gift I'd been wearing for more than 20 years, unknowingly supporting the confederacy.  I'm sure that some saw it and wondered why I would wear it.

I wore it only because it was part of my collection.  When it began showing signs of age, I moved it to my workout shirt stack.  People at the gym likely saw it, but no one ever said anything.

I cycle all my clothes:  I want them to wear out evenly.  So, I launder and fold my gym clothes, and put them at the bottom of the stack.

A few days ago, I noticed that the "GEORGIA'S STONE MOUNTAIN" tee shirt was next.  I quickly grabbed it and a pair of scissors, and I cut the image of Lee, Davis and Stonewall right through their faces.

Then I rolled them up into a ball and tossed them into my trash can.  Where they belong.  That felt right and good.