Thank you.
I’m just grateful for being taught the way I was.
I can remember the one time I used an unacceptable word regarding blacks.
I had heard it while away from home, and used it when the men were talking about a black family that lived nearby.
The silence was deafening.
No spanking ensued, but the tone of voice used by my elders left no doubt I was in deep.
My great uncle told me the story of General Lee attending St. Pauls church in Richmond, Va just after the war.
When the pastor called the congregation to come forward, a black man, a former slave, stepped forward.
None of the white people knew how to react.
General Lee stepped up, knelt beside the former slave and put his arm across the mans shoulder as they received the blessing together.
My great uncle said “if that man was good enough for the General, don’t you think he was good enough for you and me”?
Needless to say, from then on I censored my tongue and mind.
It was the true beginning of my education and has been with me all my life.
As a fellow native of the Commonwealth, I’ll back you up on how Lee is seen in Virginia...or was when history was more honestly taught in the schools, anyway. Hero worship on a level that would probably make the man rather uncomfortable, honestly.
Forty years ago there was a nuclear missile sub named after Robert E. Lee (SSBN-601) as well as one named for Stonewall Jackson (SSBN-634) and nobody gave that a second thought. Can you imagine that happening nowadays in today’s anti-Southern climate?
}:-)4