Georgia renames Confederate Memorial Day, Robert E. Lee on Holiday Calendar

CNN ^ | Sunday 9 Aug 2015 | Emanuella Grinberg

[nickcarraway]

For years, Confederate Memorial Day and Robert E. Lee's birthday have been on Georgia's official state holiday calendar.

Not any more.

The two holidays have been struck from the official calendar and replaced with the innocuous term "state holiday."

A list of 2015 state holidays on Georgia's website proclaims Robert E. Lee's birthday on January 19, but notes it will be observed on November 27. It also lists Confederate Memorial Day on April 26 with its day of observance as April 27.

A new list of 2016 state holidays reflects the change to "state holiday."

[central_va]

Fascists.

[jmacusa]

Don't feel bad General. Lincolns birthday and George Washington's birthday were combined into “Presidents day.

[Greetings_Puny_Humans]

Is Southern culture so anemic that it goes down without a fight anymore?

[R_Kangel]

.... I am sure there could be a legal argument made that this change is discrimination against those that believe in celebrating the heritage of the south.

[Iron Munro]

The racists, Gibs-Me-Dats and other democrats will still whine and complain.

[rlmorel]

These are southerners doing this, as crappy as that sounds. It is as if they are repudiating their own history out of a desire to be politically correct and not have anyone call them bad names.

It is astonishing and repulsive to me.

It reeks of Orwell’s “Memory Hole” and the Soviet practice of making someone an “unperson”.

Sickening.

[re_nortex]

While I supported Nikki Haley's decision to remove the CFB flag from state grounds, this I do not favor and vehemently oppose Georgia's absurd action.

To me, there's an important distinction and I don't think it's one of nuance or subtlety. As I've posted here on Free Republic on quite a few occasions, flag was appropriated by the DemonRAT party. From Theodore Bilbo to George Wallace to Jimmy Carter and onward to Bill Clinton, the flag has come to represent a despicable political party. Frankly, that familiar flag is far more suited to Barack Hussein Obama and his leftist allies, yes, including the Ku Klux Klan -- an outfit that's not Conservative. I'm sure there are those FReepers who think I'm in the wrong on this and we can engage in constructive discussion on that aspect. Plus I can attempt to explain why my thoughts about the CFB flag (which I used to frequently post in this forum) were altered over the past six months,

As this current matter, there's no question about the Christianity and Conservatism of General Robert E. Lee. He remains perhaps one of the five foremost military men in history. And without question, Lee deserves to be honored far and wide. After the War Between the States, he was a genuine conciliator, beloved both by the troops he commanded and those on the other side, stating, "Dismiss from your mind all sectional feeling, and bring your children up to be Americans." He's a heroic figure and should not be scrubbed our nation's heritage.

[onedoug]

PC cowards.

soetoro very pleased.

[re_nortex]

It reeks of Orwell’s “Memory Hole” and the Soviet practice of making someone an “unperson”.

I failed to cite your remark in my post and for that I apologize. In particular, the "memory hole" to which you refer from 1984 is most apt in this case. Scrubbing Robert E. Lee, a genuine hero, from the calendar is but one step removed from making him disappear entirely.

My other post notes the Christianity of Lee, which is foremost among the reasons why I admire him. On a more personal level, as a child growing up in the 1940s in a Christian home, Lee was held up as an example for avoiding strong drink. His famous quote was hammered into my brain by both my Texas-born mother and my Virgina-born grandfather:

I like whiskey. I always did, and that is why I never drink it.

[Lazamataz]

Georgia was one of the last bastions of sanity.

Was.

[liberalism is suicide]

Next up on the Georgia liberals’ attack list? Jeff Davis county? Toombsboro? Cleburne Avenue in Atlanta? Every county’s Confederate memorial? When will the liberal wacky pack stop?

[KGeorge]

https://www.facebook.com/events/863020143790560/

This isn’t the only one. Find a spot.

[rlmorel]

I agreed 100% with your post. I was born in Virginia (Norfolk, a real Navy Baby) and even though I had lived mostly in Virginia and Maryland when we weren't on Navy bases somewhere, I had to consider myself a northerner after I moved up here to New England when my Dad retired when I was 16.

It was when I went into the Navy myself, that I found out the Civil War was still going on in the hearts and minds of some people...:)

But that said, I agree with your assessment of Robert E. Lee, as I believe everyone should. He was not only a great general, but a real human being, worthy of respect regardless of where you or your ancestors lived.

I don't feel quite the same way about the Confederate Flag, but in my case, I think it is more a childish attempt to poke my finger in the eye of people who advocate political correctness, rather than a real desire to keep it flying. I have found lately that I am susceptible to this behavior, in which it is more important to me to piss people off by saying something politically incorrect just because it is so, not because I have any affinity or affiliation with it. I need to be more careful about that. I can be non-politically correct without throwing gasoline on a fire simply to make a bigger fire for the sole purpose of annoying someone.

Funny, I always thought that quote was from Stonewall Jackson, so I had to look it up (if one can trust Wikipedia for this) and he did say something similar to Lee: "I like liquor — its taste and its effects — and that is just the reason why I never drink it." As quoted in Personal Reminiscences, Anecdotes, and Letters of Gen. Robert E. Lee (1874) by John William Jones, p. 171

I would have to guess that must have been a common sentiment amongst many men of strong character of that day...when one looks at the statistics of how much alcohol our forefathers drank in those days, because nobody drank water if they could avoid it, because it was often unclean...so they drank a LOT of alcohol.

[VerySadAmerican]

When I was in the Navy in the early 70s we used to say “They can’t take your birthday away.” Then they combined Lincoln’s and Washington’s birthdays into President’s Day. We were wrong. They COULD take our birthdays away.

We also would say “They can kill us but they can’t eat us.” After President’s Day we weren’t so sure.

[LimitedPowers]

The Central Gov’t didn’t combine Lincoln’s & Washington’s birthdays: they eliminated Lincoln’s Birthday and added DRMLKJR Day.

[re_nortex]

I don't feel quite the same way about the Confederate Flag, but in my case, I think it is more a childish attempt to poke my finger in the eye of people who advocate political correctness, rather than a real desire to keep it flying.

To be totally transparent (albeit lengthy) regarding the Confederate Battle flag and my change of heart on it, every year -- including this -- I've hoisted it on the flagpole at my house on the Martin Luther King holiday. It was my way of protesting. Until just a few months ago, my Texas license plates (front and rear) had a cutout of that flag.

My rather sudden transformation dates back to several months before the Charleston church shooting and the South Carolina flag controversy. At my very Conservative church of Christ congregation, we had a new assistant preacher come in. He's also the teacher in my adult Sunday school class. He's a thoroughly solid Christian with two young girls, a loving wife, a native of Port Arthur who did his post-grad work at Texas A&M. And he's black but if you didn't see his skin, you wouldn't know it since he speaks with a deep East Texas accent.

One morning he was outside the church building as I drove up for Sunday school. As I walked in, I asked him if the Confederate flag around the license plate caught his eye and if it bothered him. He said absolutely not and we let it go at that. After services, I saw him in the church kitchen and we sat down for a cup or two of coffee for a chat to talk more about the flag (remember this was before the South Carolina incidents). He again emphasized that the flag didn't bother him and so I recounted how I flew it every year on MLK day. What he then said took me by surprise. He said if you really want to draw attention to what King was about, fly the hammer and sickle! In no uncertain terms, he told me that he considered MLK to be a communist and one of the worst things to happen to America, setting back the progress that had been made in race relations until his radical approach created so much animosity between whites and blacks.

That, of course, caught my attention and we continued our conversation about race, politics and the flags. As an Aggie who was attending in 1999 when the bonfire disaster happened, he asked if it would have helped the healing process if a UT student had planted the Longhorn flag atop the remains of the bonfire? Had that been done, it would have not merely part of the longtime rivalry but would have made enemies. (In reality, the Longhorns handled the situation well with their band actually playing the "Aggie War Hymn" when they met on the football field).

What he next said is what finally led to my change of heart. As we walked from the kitchen area, we headed toward the church auditorium on our way out to the parking lot. There were (and are) three flags on the podium, similar to this picture:

He then asked if adding the Confederate battle flag to those three would serve to further Glorify God? And then he quoted I Corinthians 10:23: All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not.

[re_nortex]

I was born in Virginia (Norfolk, a real Navy Baby) and even though I had lived mostly in Virginia and Maryland when we weren't on Navy bases somewhere, I had to consider myself a northerner after I moved up here to New England when my Dad retired when I was 16.

I talked your ear off in another post about the Confederate battle flag and my recent re-thinking of it leading to a change of my former attitude.

This more succinct reply is just to tell you that the maternal side of my family is from Tidewater and traces back their roots for generations there. Although my mom was a native Texan, all of her forebears were Virginians. Most were from the Peninsula (Newport News, Hampton and Yorktown) but we some rogue elements from Norfolk! :)

My grandpappy was a great man and I can still remember how he spoke with that Tidewater dialect: roof, house and about. For a man born in the 19th Century, he was reasonably tolerant of blacks (or "nigras" as he called them). The one group of people he couldn't stand, though, were North Carolinaians or "border hoppers" as he referred to them. He was very protective of Virginia and its heritage and resented the influx of people from Carolina working at the shipyards and such. Truth be told, that was the only prejudice he really had.

[rlmorel]

I completely appreciate that post. Explains it very well and conveys your point in a way I can understand.

[Alter Kaker]

Of course this is “discrimination against those that believe in celebrating the heritage of the south” - so what? Governments can discriminate in countless ways legally - there are only a few exceptions (such as on the basis of race) and those are generally explicitly enumerated in law. But discriminating against those who celebrate the heritage of anything? Unless it’s a religion there’s no law against that.