May 20, 2003
Lee
Robert E. Lee epitomizes nobility of character. To many, his name inspires awe. He represents the personal standards to which Scouts aspire. And it was his tragedy to lend his virtues and talents to an unjust cause.
The news from the Robert E. Lee Council of the Boy Scouts of America is the latest chapter in an argument in which the well-intended on both sides stake compelling claims. Those who cherish Lee and the stan- dards he represents draw the community's attention to humility and decency. Their pride cannot be questioned. Nor is it possible to dismiss or ridicule those who see homages to Lee as symbols of the indefensible. The Confederacy simply cannot be separated from slavery.
Lee loved Virginia. He could not take up arms against his land. The bondsman was not free to make a similar choice. If Lee's armies had won, many more years would have passed before emancipation. Victory by the Army of Northern Virginia would have extended slavery.
The many decades after the war cannot be separated from an era in which many who claimed Lee's spiritual inheritance imposed Jim Crow - i.e., segregation enforced by a powerful, merciless state. Human rights were sacrificed to the false idols of states' rights.
If Lee had personified evil, there would be no debate. If he had commanded U.S. troops on D-Day, there would be no debate, either. He was a good man who, when hit by history's freight train, went the wrong way. Yet when silence fell at Appomattox, he conducted himself in a manner subsequent generations often admired but seldom emulated. His life teaches lessons valuable to Scouts - and to others.
One point, though, ought to be clear. People who consider a statue of Abraham Lincoln an insult forfeit the standing to complain when individuals say Confederate memorials summon memories of repression and pain.