(Robert E.) Lee school name OK, critic says

daily press ^ | January 18, 2004 | Kerrie Frisinger

[stainlessbanner]

HAMPTON -- The woman who proposed striking the names of Confederate leaders from two Hampton schools has dropped half of her petition, saying she's gained new perspective on the character and legacy of Gen. Robert E. Lee.

"By looking at his own words, you really can see he was a good, honorable man," said Erenestine Harrison, author of the petition. "The things that changed my mind about Robert E. Lee, I really had to look deep."

[stainlessbanner]

Read link to see what happens when a woman educates herself.

[cynicom]

This lady evidently was asleep in history class throughout school. To make matters worse, she evidently has never had the ambition to think on her own. What a pity.

[let us cross over the river]

This is a good article to say "Happy Birthday" General Lee. Robert Edward Lee born this date in 1807.

[mhking]

Bethel High School teacher Helen Mitchell recently assigned her honors 11th grade U.S. history class to write about the propriety of the school names, based on historical fact.

"I was so impressed with the enthusiasm of the students with the project," Mitchell said. "Students are not always eager to write papers, because it involves research."

Many of her students are black and alumni of (Jefferson) Davis Middle School, Mitchell said. She thought examining history would lead most of them to argue for new monikers.

It didn't.

The top grade on the project went to a student who supported keeping Lee's name and ditching Davis', but a majority of writers thought quality of education was a far more important consideration, Mitchell said. Many also worried the petition was creating racial tensions that didn't exist before.

"The issue of race is foremost on the minds of young people today," Mitchell said.

Davis eighth-grader April Justin, who is Hispanic, said she would fight to keep anyone from renaming her school.

"It sort of disgusted me," Justin said. "It doesn't make sense. It seems like she's the only one who feels that way."

Justin and three friends took initiative to write their own essay, possibly for extra credit, arguing that any changes would be pointless and misguided.

"They seem almost offended that someone would think they're so damaged," Claire Jernigan, Justin's government teacher, said of all her students. Jernigan plans to ask her class to write about school names from a legislative point of view.

It's problematic that the school namesakes don't bother students, especially minorities, Harrison said. She blames a disconnect between young people and history.

"Out of the mouths of babes..."

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[Puppage]

Isn't it nice she had an opinion & tried to do something about it BEFORE she knew what she was talking about....

Next week on Survivor........

[basil]

ping!

[4CJ]

It's problematic that the school namesakes don't bother students, especially minorities, Harrison said. She blames a disconnect between young people and history.

Ms. Harrison, why is it a problem that they don't share your distorted views?

[Gianni]

The top grade on the project went to a student who supported keeping Lee's name and ditching Davis', but a majority of writers thought quality of education was a far more important consideration, Mitchell said. Many also worried the petition was creating racial tensions that didn't exist before.

"The issue of race is foremost on the minds of young people today," Mitchell said.

Apparently, Ms Mitchell, the issue of quality education is foremost on the minds of young people today.

[Gianni]

It's problematic that the school namesakes don't bother students, especially minorities, Harrison said.

You noticed that too, huh?

"Trust me, people, the only reason you don't agree with me is because you're too stupid to be offended!"

[RonF]

Depends on what was taught in history. I went to school in the Boston area, and all I was taught about General Robert E. Lee was that he lived in Virginia, was an officer in the U.S. Army, joined the Confederate Army when the Civil War broke out, and while he was a good general he eventually had to surrender to General Grant at the Appomatox Courthouse. We didn't delve into his biography, and there was little representation of his character, either positive or negative.

[LoudRepublicangirl]

Are there any Freepers out there from Biloxi Mississippi? If so, can you tell me if Jefferson Davis Elementary school still bears his name or has it been renamed to please those who want to rewrite history?

[cynicom]

I admit to being in school in the 30s and 40s, and a yankee to boot. However, we were taught that Lincoln offered Lee command of the Union Army. Knowing that, it was not to difficult to believe that Lee was nothing less than an honorable man, or Lincoln was a bad judge of character. The lady in question is typical of those that have never been willing to think for themselves.

[lentulusgracchus]

"By looking at his own words, you really can see he was a good, honorable man," said Erenestine Harrison, author of the petition. "The things that changed my mind about Robert E. Lee, I really had to look deep."

If she were to repeat that exercise several times with other Confederate leaders, she might find herself making a habit of this. There are a number of such leaders -- Pat Cleburne comes to mind, and George Pickett. James Longstreet was a conciliator who took heat from Southern newspapers, from business acquaintances, from everyone, when he took the position that Congress, having won the War, had the right of the conqueror to remake the laws anyway it wanted, and to confer the franchise on blacks if it wanted to -- which was heresy, even blasphemy, in the South. Others might suffer, however, like Braxton Bragg and maybe Jubal Early and "Old Wooden Head", John B. Hood. Leonidas Polk was an Episcopal bishop, but that might not pass muster with some folks. Still, they've got no call to beat up on Marse Robert, and probably not on Stonewall Jackson, either. And some, like Henry Wirtz and John Wilkes Booth, wouldn't require much thought at all.

[RonF]

Lincoln gave Grant the command of the Union Army, and few in the South have much good to say of HIS character. McClellan was no moral giant either. Lincoln was looking for someone to win a war. Character wasn't at the top of his list. So I'd not make any presumptions about Lee on that basis.

[4CJ]

Trust me, people, the only reason you don't agree with me is because you're too stupid to be offended!"

If you think about it, during the attempted 2000 Floriduh coup d'etat, the Demonrat leaders were stating that THEIR voters were STUPID.

[cynicom]

Presumptions??? Surely you jest. History is history, and by that line of thinking, Lee indeed may have been a scoundrel, however no one has ever come up with conclusion. To think otherwise via "presumtions" is to deny history and facts. Grant went on to become a president.

As far as Generals go, Lee was the best during the Civil War, even Grant said that. I presume nothing, so do not presume what I do or do not think. That is how this lady went wrong, unable to think on her own and terribly deficient in history.

[lentulusgracchus]

Ron, hello again.

I split my youth, as an Indiana-born military brat, between northern (Minnesota, Newfoundland) and southern (Biloxi, Waco, San Antonio) duty stations, but I pretty much sidestepped Civil War and blue/gray issues because I was educated in either Catholic or Defense Department schools. So what we got was basically the Northern version of the war -- and I got more than the average, because my dad (also a Hoosier) had read both Sandberg and Herndon on Lincoln, and he had a number of Bruce Catton books around which I occasionally read from. So I got a little bit more. You may recall the resuscitation of studies in the Civil War by its centennial, and by TV shows. There was one series that had two brothers, one on either side of the contest, constantly running into one another on various battlegrounds in the eastern theater -- preferably while a general engagement was in progress! Even a kid like me wasn't taken in by that one.

The one key point which stands out in my mind from what I learned about the Civil War back then was that Abraham Lincoln, no matter what, was a great man, and the South was in the wrong and deserved to lose the war because they fired first, at Fort Sumter. (But somehow this logic didn't apply to the Minuteman who fired "the shot heard 'round the world"!) I was satisfied that the war had ended equitably and inevitably in a Northern victory, and that we were all better off for it -- better dead than Red!

It would be years before I reexamined the question of equity in assigning responsibility for the war, goaded by a quote from H.L. Mencken about, of all things, the Gettysburg Address.

[lentulusgracchus]

Lincoln was looking for someone to win a war. Character wasn't at the top of his list. So I'd not make any presumptions about Lee on that basis.

Fair enough.

Then we are led to infer an insult -- that Lincoln really expected that Lee would turn on his own people for a two-rank promotion and a general's pay, and kill, what? Forty, fifty thousand Virginians and Southerners to bring the unwilling South, raped and bleeding, back into the Union toute de suite?

Lincoln mistook his man.

[tom h]

Another liberal airhead and moron. This article reminds me of the two blacks that heard a supervisor use the term "niggardly" and filed a discrimination suit. Never mind that the word does not derive from the "N" word and that it means miserly. When confronted with their own ignorance and stupidity, the blacks claimed that it was still the poor white fellow's fault.

[BBT]

Yellow pages search shows this one:

Jeff Davis Elementary School (228) 436-5110 340 Saint Mary Blvd, Biloxi, MS 39531