They say that composting, the alchemy of turning dead plants to rich soil, came to America at Montecello.
They say that Thomas Jefferson was one of the first people in the country to use compost,
but let's be real, not once in that mans life did he personally dig into a pile of rotten vegetables to nurture the earth.
Thomas Jefferson had slaves to do it for him.
And so it would be more accurate to say that the men and women who were stolen from their homes and brought here against their will introduced compost to America.
So it makes sense that Dr. George Washington-Carver,
A man who was born into slavery,
Would be the true king of compost.
Dr. Carver traveled across the country using plant cadavers to resurrect soil,
where cotton had left only dust.
The art of taking the old and the rotten and burying it so that new life can grow is one that I wish to grow more proficient in,
beginning with bringing every confederate statue steeped in the wrong side of history to the ground.
These rotten reminders that at one time men murdered men for the right to own people would surely decompose quickly and provide a dazzling array nutrients to any plants that managed to grow underneath the feet to those of us dancing on their shallow graves.
Then, we would move on to the non-confederate statues and memorials because believe it or not,
our history is filled with leaders who owned slaves,
denied humans the freedom about which they wrote so eloquently,
Washington, Jefferson, and others,
Men who we have deified and deemed beyond reproach will be approached and then encroached and eventually they too will lie underneath earth packed tight by dancing,
But we wont be done there.
Because even then when every symbol of hatred has been pulled from its pedestal,
We will look out upon an American landscape reduced to dust by racism,
and on that day we will remember the peanut growing scientist,
we will follow in his footsteps through fallow lands,
and with the work of many hands,
maybe we will make America great for the very first time.
They say that Thomas Jefferson was one of the first people in the country to use compost,
but let's be real, not once in that mans life did he personally dig into a pile of rotten vegetables to nurture the earth.
Thomas Jefferson had slaves to do it for him.
And so it would be more accurate to say that the men and women who were stolen from their homes and brought here against their will introduced compost to America.
So it makes sense that Dr. George Washington-Carver,
A man who was born into slavery,
Would be the true king of compost.
Dr. Carver traveled across the country using plant cadavers to resurrect soil,
where cotton had left only dust.
The art of taking the old and the rotten and burying it so that new life can grow is one that I wish to grow more proficient in,
beginning with bringing every confederate statue steeped in the wrong side of history to the ground.
These rotten reminders that at one time men murdered men for the right to own people would surely decompose quickly and provide a dazzling array nutrients to any plants that managed to grow underneath the feet to those of us dancing on their shallow graves.
Then, we would move on to the non-confederate statues and memorials because believe it or not,
our history is filled with leaders who owned slaves,
denied humans the freedom about which they wrote so eloquently,
Washington, Jefferson, and others,
Men who we have deified and deemed beyond reproach will be approached and then encroached and eventually they too will lie underneath earth packed tight by dancing,
But we wont be done there.
Because even then when every symbol of hatred has been pulled from its pedestal,
We will look out upon an American landscape reduced to dust by racism,
and on that day we will remember the peanut growing scientist,
we will follow in his footsteps through fallow lands,
and with the work of many hands,
maybe we will make America great for the very first time.
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