Robert E. Lee represented a racist south - and one whose lasting legacy was the involuntary enslavement of others. This man should not be celebrated.
FO!
Aw, come on. You just don't want to chip in on the birthday gift.
I don't know on which level to respond to this garbage. (not enough time while at work)
Happy Birthday Robert E. Lee!
From a PROUD Southerner!!!
Would you say the same thing about George Washington, Thomas Jefferson?
Seeing the past as black or white really doesn't add much to the conversation other than a sense of faux moral pride. What did you do to liberate the slaves Dude?
"Robert E. Lee represented a racist south - and one whose lasting legacy was the involuntary enslavement of others. This man should not be celebrated."
Lee's critics would never speak that way to his face were they there.
It takes a special kind of coward to show disrespect to a man that even his enemies admired.
In short, go ESAD, loser.
Are you saying we still have "involuntary enslavement of others" in the U.S.? If not, what in the world do you mean by "lasting legacy"?
Blaming General Lee for the Moslems (today's major slaveholders) is a bit much, don't you think?
Lee fought for Virginia. He was against secession and against slavery. I said this on another thread, but I think it bears repeating. Men had a loyalty to the states of their birth that most of us don't have now. He could not bring himself to betray Virginia by fighting against her.
He did a great thing at the end of the war by calling on Southerners to lay down their arms and not continue a bloody guerilla war.
You probably also run around at Christmas time KMC1 tearing down nativity scenes?
Does it bother you when others wish to commemorate the birthday of a confederate military commander, a man of giant religious principle who "dwarfed" his union opponents on the southern battlefields?
I guess it really bugs you that everyone does not think like you and, within days of martin luther kings birthday are actually celebrating Robert E. Lee. What a queer!
Your comment is unworthy of even an uneducated Yankee, and you seem to know little or nothing about the Civil War. States rights was the main issue of the war, not slavery. What you should do is read a book on the Civil War and Robert E. Lee's role in that war before showing your ignorance in this forum.
Your comment is unworthy of even an uneducated Yankee, and you seem to know little or nothing about the Civil War. States rights was the main issue of the war, not slavery. What you should do is read a book on the Civil War and Robert E. Lee's role in that war before showing your ignorance in this forum.
Robert E. Lee wasn't a racist - and before you get on your Yankee high horse, might one remind you of the blacks hung from lampposts in NY, the racist/discriminatory policies in the North (against Blacks, Irish, Italians, etc) - you know the deal - glass house + stones...
Lee represented the state of Viriginia. He did not get involved until Virginia was INVADED by the federals.
Robert E. Lee was a tragic figure in the full Classical sense; but I must disagree with your summation of him as offered through the prism of our modern day. It is one thing to dismiss a Lee when judged by 21st century standards - but it would do well for us to remember a simple truth about that time: that before the Civil War, the United States "were" (... referred to as a collection of states, hence a multiple confederation), and after the war, the United States "was" (... now a single entity). When you think about this, you can better understand that Lee saw himself as first a Virginian, and an American second - he was defending his homeland.
True, Slavery was the scourge upon our Country, the Single Most Important Question in the first century of our Republic. Good men - Americans - fell on both sides of the issue. The issue was greater than any single man, yet not so permanent that it could for long conquer the principles upon which our Nation was founded. In such a grave reckoning, it was unavoidable that good men would be lost whatever their side.
To condemn R.E. Lee for defending a lost cause - lost because ultimately the antebellum South laid their moral foundation stone upon slavery - is to me the same as condemning the United States of America for having been born a nation which at the time still practiced/accepted slavery.
Not to be flippant, but I can look at this complex issue one of two ways: (a) fully condemn my country and heroes like Lee for being imperfect (as America's birth was, and Lee for supporting a morally doomed cause); or (b) give thanks that our Country & Constitution contained seeds of sufficient strength to ultimately remove this stain, even at such a bloody cost in human treasure.
I choose the latter, and give thanks to God that we survived as a nation... and I give prayers and a unique admiration for those men like Robert E. Lee who chose the wrong side, yet fought with honor and valor.
Robert E. Lee was a great American, and the certain shadow cast upon him for having fought to defend a confederacy that placed the hopes of its birth upon the right to treat men as property - though a lengthy shadow, to be sure - is not enough to cover the light within him.
After all is said and done, if another American of that day who lived through the horror of our Civil War could forgive his southern brothers "with malice towards none and charity for all" (Lincoln), then I can do no less.
CGVet58
