(06-09-2020, 03:57 PM)jagibelieve Wrote:

(06-09-2020, 02:35 PM)mikesez Wrote: I'm not saying the man never did anything nice.  
There are contexts where he's remembered positively.  I understand they study his battle plans at West Point alongside Rommel, Bonaparte, and even Hannibal, as they should.  And I understand he's a hero of the Mexican-American war as well.
But outside the context of military education, is there anything we remember Lee for that wasn't an effort to prolong or whitewash the enslavement of Americans?

Robert E. Lee was a hero in the Mexican/American war.  He was reluctant to join the confederacy and only did so because that was what his home state chose to do.  In fact, he was very much against secession.

(06-09-2020, 03:32 PM)NYC4jags Wrote: Not sad at all. 

Our American history is rich with many things that will continue to be taught to the next generation. Including the Civil War.
We aren't going to stop teaching it. 

In fact, we should do a better job of teaching it more completely so that those next generations are better at making decisions about exactly who and/or what would make a proper monument in front of city hall. 
Maybe they won't be tempted to erect a statue that exists as a symbol of oppression to 30% of the community where it stands. 

My maternal family tree leads directly to men who died fighting for the confederacy.  I don't need that statue to honor them  - ESPECIALLY when it affects so many others so negatively.

I disagree.  It wasn't until perhaps 10 years or so ago that the monuments, school names, etc. were deemed "offensive" or "repressive".  We are told by those on the left that there should be an "open and honest" dialog about black history.  What better way to start a conversation than to have someone ask the question as to why a piece of art 100+ years old is displayed where it is?

Much like the definition of "hate speech" the definition of a "proper monument" is purely subjective.

It was placed four to six decades after the civil War as part of a whole of government effort to roll back the rights and status that black people had won during Reconstruction, to erase not only the gains themselves but also the memory of those gains.

And Robert E Lee may have opposed seccession, but he also wholeheartedly supported slavery.  He rubbed salt into the wounds of the slaves he whipped theb wrote eloquent letters to his family about how it was God's will that they be "educated" this way.  His explanation for not wanting Virginia to secede but then fighting to defend her when she did was similarly strained and hypocritical, I'm sure.

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