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The Robert E. Lee Problem (Get the eraser ready)
NY Times ^ | June 26, 2015 | David Brooks

Posted on 06/26/2015 12:41:56 PM PDT by C19fan

The debate about the Charleston Bible study shooting has morphed into a debate about the Confederate battle flag and other symbols of the Confederacy. This is not a trivial sideshow. Racism is not just a personal prejudice and an evolutionary byproduct. It resurfaces year after year because it’s been woven by historical events into the fabric of American culture.

That culture is transmitted through the generations by the things we honor or don’t honor, by the symbols and names we celebrate and don’t celebrate. If we want to reduce racism we have to elevate the symbols that signify the struggle against racism and devalue the symbols that signify its acceptance.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: civil; confederate; war
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Brooks would make a model employee at Minitrue. How about this Mr. Brooks, for every Lee you remove we get to remove a Woodrow Wilson or Margaret Sanger.
1 posted on 06/26/2015 12:41:56 PM PDT by C19fan
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To: C19fan

This is what Mao did in his cultural revolution, as a prelude to murdering 40,000,000 “hooligans” who would not conform.


2 posted on 06/26/2015 12:43:11 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum ("One man with a gun can control a hundred without one." -- Vladimir Lenin)
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To: C19fan
What Civil War?

There was no "Civil War"

Only a brief period in our History known as "unpeace"

3 posted on 06/26/2015 12:46:36 PM PDT by KC_Lion (PLEASE SUPPORT FR. Donate Monthly or Join Club 300! G-d bless you all!)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

I love making liberals show their idiocy to the world.

I asked a liberal on twitter if Houston Texas should change its name since it was named after a confederate governor. The idiot liberal was all for removing that racist governor’s name.

I then pointed out that Sam Houston was opposed to the civil war and was removed from office because of it.


4 posted on 06/26/2015 12:49:10 PM PDT by cripplecreek (Sad fact, most people just want a candidate to tell them what they want to hear)
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To: C19fan
They are going to have a hell of a time eradicating Stone Mountain. Or the US currency that once bore his likeness: 1925 Half Dollar
5 posted on 06/26/2015 12:51:00 PM PDT by lacrew
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To: C19fan

I doubt Brooks knows the bio of Lee.
Interesting I do know some elderly blacks named after Lee. Bet their family knows more than Brooks!


6 posted on 06/26/2015 12:51:14 PM PDT by RginTN
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To: C19fan

Wait til they hit Stone Mtn GA.


7 posted on 06/26/2015 12:52:29 PM PDT by ameribbean expat
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To: C19fan
Dear David,

This is what a very famous person thought about Robt. E. Lee


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 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 belief 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 caliber 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

8 posted on 06/26/2015 12:53:43 PM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: C19fan

“This is not about rewriting history. It’s about shaping the culture going forward.”

No, it’s about erasing it. How does one go about shaping a culture without a knowledge and understanding of its history?


9 posted on 06/26/2015 12:55:28 PM PDT by beelzepug (liberalism is not...a political philosophy. It is a stage of arrested emotional development.)
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To: cripplecreek

You are a cruel, cruel man.


10 posted on 06/26/2015 12:56:07 PM PDT by bagman
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To: C19fan

Washington owned slaves. Is everything named after Washington a deliberate insult to blacks?


11 posted on 06/26/2015 12:58:21 PM PDT by reaganaut1
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To: C19fan

“The Robert E. Lee problem”

The problem has nothing to do with General Lee.

The problem is the continual lying and disinformation by the media.

If these media types told the truth there would be no problem.


12 posted on 06/26/2015 12:58:35 PM PDT by detective
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To: lacrew

Stone Mountain can be eradicated about as easily as the Taliban destroyed the Buddhas of Bamiyan.


13 posted on 06/26/2015 1:01:26 PM PDT by WayneS (Yeah, it's probably sarcasm...)
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To: KC_Lion

No, America fell in a black hole from 1861-65. When it emerged it was all daisies and unicorns.


14 posted on 06/26/2015 1:04:40 PM PDT by miss marmelstein (Richard the Third: "I should like to drive away not only the Turks (moslims) but all my foes.")
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To: central_va
Thanks.

What a great letter.

It also reminds us that America once had intelligent and articulate presidents.

And that gentlemen once engaged in reasoned discussion of issues.

It makes Brookes and the current media and political elite look like the whiny, anti-American brats they are.

15 posted on 06/26/2015 1:04:53 PM PDT by detective
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To: detective

The crazy thing is that Robert E Lee has generally been seen in just as favorable a light in the north as he is in the south.


16 posted on 06/26/2015 1:06:29 PM PDT by cripplecreek (Sad fact, most people just want a candidate to tell them what they want to hear)
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To: C19fan
by historical events into the fabric of American culture.

A certain subset of the 'black' population (specifically, the NAACP, BlackPampers, Nation of Islam subset) have certainly woven an exceptionally vile racism into their culture.

But the NAACP/BlackPampers/NoI culture is not only un-American, it is explicitly and consciously ANTI-American.

Just ask "Calypso Louie" Farrakhan about tearing down the American flag ... and the AFRICAN Methodist Episcopal Church congregation that applauded him.

17 posted on 06/26/2015 1:06:35 PM PDT by NorthMountain ("The time has come", the Walrus said, "to talk of many things")
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To: C19fan
Her father’s will (somewhat impractically) said they were to be freed, but Lee didn’t free them.

Factually incorrect. They were eventually freed, just not as quickly as they would have liked. Lee tracked down slaves who escaped before their formal emancipation and had them flogged in punishment.

18 posted on 06/26/2015 1:09:39 PM PDT by Sherman Logan
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To: C19fan

Mayor Mitch Landrieu [NOL] yesterday, called for statues honoring the Confederacy to be removed from the city.

http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2015/06/robert_e_lee_statue_removal.html

Let’s just hide history, why don’t we?


19 posted on 06/26/2015 1:15:12 PM PDT by Daffynition ("We Are Not Descended From Fearful Men")
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To: reaganaut1
Washington owned slaves. Is everything named after Washington a deliberate insult to blacks

Seattle, Washington is in King county, originally named after William King who was a Vice President under Pierce. Not too many years ago, they changed the person who the county was named after to Martin Luther King, so it remained King County.

Look for them to do the same with Washington. My guess would be: Booker T. Washington.

Personally, Id' vote for this Washington (second from the right):

if you are going to do something stupid you may as well go all the way.

20 posted on 06/26/2015 1:16:22 PM PDT by Michael.SF. (-)
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