As usual the left has everything wrong. Like the Taliban blowing up those Buddhist carvings in Afghanistan.
Personally, I have no use for Robert E. Lee. But I don’t advocate for destroying the memorial. Today the technology exists to make these memorials more interactive. Instead of trying to tear them down, what people should do is create a variety of different podcasts where visitors to the site - or anyone interested - can click on a QR code or a link and download any variety of different podcast/video lectures about the site, about Lee and Jackson, about the artist and the construction of the memorial etc from a variety of different speakers and perspectives.
Instead of trying to erase history, teach history! Don’t destroy, enhance! There are many things to learn about the man, the war, the history of the site, the artists who made it, the tools they used etc etc. The left is missing an opportunity to do some good and instead to try to just sweep things they don’t like out of existence. Wrong approach.
“Personally, I have no use for Robert E. Lee.“
I doubt he’d have much use for you either.
L
You should read something about Robert E. Lee and cure your ignorance on the subject.
Robert E. Lee was one of the finest Americans who ever lived.
(I was born in Wisconsin from upstate NY parents going back many generations, Yankee)
Robert E. Lee was a great man and a great American of Virginian descent.
He bore a great burden when he made his decision that the the State of Virginia was an individual State with rights guaranteed under the Constitution of the United States.
The 10th Amendment of the Constitution precluded the Federal Government imposing it’s will on those states that chose secession.
Robert E. Lee was first last and always a Virginian; just as most military formations of the Civil War, both North and South represented their Individual States, not necessarily the Union as a whole.
A few examples would be;
1: 20th Main Volunteer Infantry Regiment (union).
2: 140th New York Infantry Regiment (union).
3: The Michigan Brigade (union).
4: Alabama 26th Infantry Regiment (confederate).
5: Louisiana Tigers (confederate).
6: 1st North Carolina Cavalry Regiment (confederate).
When this unit was surrendered in 1865 there were only 8 men left out of the entire Regiment.
A lot of these unit names are still used today in the United States Army.
A lot of brave men fought and died not for slavery, but against what they believed to be an out of control Federal Government trampling their States Rights.
Eisenhower Explains About General Lee (1957), video
In the summer of 1960, Mr. Eisenhower received a letter from a man who objected to the president’s expression of admiration for the great Civil War general. This was his response:
August 9, 1960
Dear Dr. Scott:
Respecting your August 1 inquiry calling attention to my often expressed admiration for General Robert E. Lee, I would say, first, that we need to understand that at the time of the War between the States the issue of secession had remained unresolved for more than 70 years. Men of probity, character, public standing and unquestioned loyalty, both North and South, had disagreed over this issue as a matter of principle from the day our Constitution was adopted.
General Robert E. Lee was, in my estimation, one of the supremely gifted men produced by our Nation. He believed unswervingly in the Constitutional validity of his cause which until 1865 was still an arguable question in America; he was a poised and inspiring leader, true to the high trust reposed in him by millions of his fellow citizens; he was thoughtful yet demanding of his officers and men, forbearing with captured enemies but ingenious, unrelenting and personally courageous in battle, and never disheartened by a reverse or obstacle. Through all his many trials, he remained selfless almost to a fault and unfailing in his faith in God. Taken altogether, he was noble as a leader and as a man, and unsullied as I read the pages of our history.
From deep conviction, I simply say this: a nation of men of Lee’s calibre would be unconquerable in spirit and soul. Indeed, to the degree that present-day American youth will strive to emulate his rare qualities, including his devotion to this land as revealed in his painstaking efforts to help heal the Nation’s wounds once the bitter struggle was over, we, in our own time of danger in a divided world, will be strengthened and our love of freedom sustained.
Such are the reasons that I proudly display the picture of this great American on my office wall.
Sincerely,
Dwight D. Eisenhower