Gen. Robert E. Lee' s statute is coming down today

[jltrent]

Robert E. Lee statue in Virginia's capital will come down Wednesday, officials say | CNN

A 12-ton statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee that sits on the historic Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia, is set to be taken down Wednesday, state officials said Monday.

www.cnn.com

A 12-ton statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee that sits on the historic Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia, is set to be taken down Wednesday, state officials said Monday.
Gov. Ralph Northam announced his intention to remove the Confederate statue, which is the largest remaining in the US, in June 2020, amid nationwide protests for racial justice.

I remember in US history books idolizing this great Confederate general, so I guess from now on history will be rewritten. It would not surprise me if the battlefields are plowed up an put in corn and the museums closed.

 

[SmokinM]

Sad but true, even sadder that so many that don't understand history is to be learned from not offended by.

 

[kenny thomas]

Been there since 1890 and now it's an evil thing. There is an evil thing in Richmond but it's not the statue.

 

[HDRider]

Like a punch in the gut

 

[farmerjan]

It is a sad a day when the rewriting of history is the norm. We will not learn from this, as we have learned from the past history and made great strides to make life better than it was......
The idiot in the "office" in Richmond is going to live stream the taking down ... at least that is what my radio station said.

This from a transplanted Yankee that had relatives in the Union forces and although I believe that the reasons for the war were many, the ending of slavery was a big step in the right direction to being truly equal.... Yet to demean the people who did what they truly believed in, is to say that what you believe in, and fight for, is of no value unless you follow the pattern.....
History is the recording of the lives and times and strife of the people.....and to learn from it, is to make it better for the future. To bury it, is like putting your head in the sand.... you neither benefit from the sacrifices made by those that came before....but you are doomed to make the same stupid mistakes and choices because you cannot learn from the past.

 

[alacowman1]

Y'all gonna wake the woke up on this one ..

 

[jltrent]

I always wanted to visit these statues as had some great school instructors on the history of Virginia. I guess another thing I can take off the bucket list.

 

[Son of Butch]

Replace it with a statue of Lee's relative Robert Carter III 1728-1804
Robert Carter's grandfather Robert 'King' Carter was Lee's 4th grandfather.

A British loyalist until 1773 as the Nation's largest plantation owner Robert Carter III was a neighbor of George Washington and his friendship with Thomas Jefferson was such that he loaned young Jefferson money to study law. While he turned down offers of political office by patriot friends, he supplied provisions and bayonets during the Revolutionary War.

In her diary a niece marveled at his generosity to his slaves. She recorded he allotted 16 pints of cornmeal and 1 lb of meat for each slave every week. He banished whipping but for the severest of offenses and refused to sell any family member including brothers and sisters if any of the family was under 18. His split with British rule started with the Colonial Governor's 1772 ruling that slaves could be punished without due process.

Starting in 1791 he freed 511 of his slaves (while he was alive) and allotted some of them land. He encouraged Washington and Jefferson to do the same.
Washington never freed any of his slaves and Jefferson only freed 10 of his upon his death 35 years later.

 

[kenny thomas]

If I remember my history Lee didn't believe in slavery, he fought for his state.

 

[greybeard]

"
Claims casting Lee as an anti-slavery figure are tied to a false narrative known as the Lost Cause, which says the Confederate experience in the Civil War was not about slavery, but states' rights. As protests following the death of George Floyd led to reexamination of historical injustices and demands that monuments celebrating the Confederacy be taken down, false posts emerged on Facebook claiming that Lee "opposed both slavery and secession." The false post was shared tens of thousands of times.


"Between owning a handful of slaves from his own family and then managing his father-in-law's 200 slaves, Lee was very, very involved with slavery during his life up until the end of 1862," said John Reeves, a historian and author of the book, "The Lost Indictment of Robert E. Lee: The Forgotten Case Against an American Icon." Reeves explained that Lee worked the slaves for about five years in order to pay off legacies associated with his father-in-law's estate. "He was utilizing the slave labor in order to pay the legacies," Reeves explained.

Lee fought in court to keep the slaves working because he didn't know if he would be able to pay off his legacies. Wesley Norris was born a slave on the plantation that Lee managed after his father-in-law died. Norris testified during the court fight that Lee beat him when he tried to run away. "Every one of the facts in Wesley Norris' account has been shown to be true," Reeves noted.



The Lost Cause ideology imagines Lee as a gifted military general who was fighting not for slavery but for states' rights.

Take that for whatever ya paid for it.

I OPPOSE tho, the removal of historical statues and paintings for the purpose of re-writing history.

The world was shocked when the Taliban destroyed 1500 year old historical physical artifacts the last time they were in power in Afghanistan. A UNESCO World Heritage site. Last week, they destroyed a statue of Abdul Ali Mazari — a champion of the country's ethnic Hazara minority. Isis did the same thing in Iraq. Have we ourselves become Talibanish?

Taliban destroy statue of foe, stoking fears after moderation claims

The Taliban, who are trying to present a moderate face after sweeping into power in Afghanistan, have blown up the statue of a Shiite militia leader who had fought against them in the 1990s.

nypost.com

 

[Buck Randall]

It is a sad a day when the rewriting of history is the norm. We will not learn from this, as we have learned from the past history and made great strides to make life better than it was......
The idiot in the "office" in Richmond is going to live stream the taking down ... at least that is what my radio station said.

This from a transplanted Yankee that had relatives in the Union forces and although I believe that the reasons for the war were many, the ending of slavery was a big step in the right direction to being truly equal.... Yet to demean the people who did what they truly believed in, is to say that what you believe in, and fight for, is of no value unless you follow the pattern.....
History is the recording of the lives and times and strife of the people.....and to learn from it, is to make it better for the future. To bury it, is like putting your head in the sand.... you neither benefit from the sacrifices made by those that came before....but you are doomed to make the same stupid mistakes and choices because you cannot learn from the past.

Lots of people die for causes they believe in - it does not automatically confer respect. The Taliban believe they are fighting a holy war for their country. The Germans believed in their cause during WWII. We do not erect statues for them. Lee took up arms against the United States of America. He's not worthy of celebration.

Removing the statue is not burying history; it's removing the whitewash from it.

 

[FungusProudKY31]

Lots of people die for causes they believe in - it does not automatically confer respect. The Taliban believe they are fighting a holy war for their country. The Germans believed in their cause during WWII. We do not erect statues for them. Lee took up arms against the United States of America. He's not worthy of celebration.

Removing the statue is not burying history; it's removing the whitewash from it.

Then let's rename all MLK Blvds in the USA

 

[jltrent]

You guys up North don't realize what a legend Robert E. Lee is down here. He almost kicked your azz with probably 1/4 of what you guys had or less. The guy could out flank, out maneuver, out think any of your high flutter Generals. The guy was truly a legend and a sad day in our history.

 

[alacowman1]

Then let's rename all MLK Blvds in the USA

To heck with that..George Floyd is their champion..

 

[HDRider]

Lots of people die for causes they believe in - it does not automatically confer respect. The Taliban believe they are fighting a holy war for their country. The Germans believed in their cause during WWII. We do not erect statues for them. Lee took up arms against the United States of America. He's not worthy of celebration.

Removing the statue is not burying history; it's removing the whitewash from it.

You can kiss off to equate Lee to Nazis

I'll decide what to celebrate.

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

Then let's rename all MLK Blvds in the USA

If we did that the thugs and gang bangers wouldn't know where to hang out.

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

Lots of people die for causes they believe in - it does not automatically confer respect. The Taliban believe they are fighting a holy war for their country. The Germans believed in their cause during WWII. We do not erect statues for them. Lee took up arms against the United States of America. He's not worthy of celebration.

Removing the statue is not burying history; it's removing the whitewash from it.

Up yours Buck.

 

[Ky hills]

It's a divisive subject all the way around. I am not for removing the statues, as it does represent a time period in our nation's history. The way I see it they are a reminder of where we were and how far the division got. At the same time I can understand how those statues and other items would be offensive to some. Depending on your view of history, and perhaps even more so current views those statues can bring about a lot of differing sentiments.
Commemorating the work of Martin Luther King Jr. is not in comparable context.

 

[shaz]

No statues to the Nazis because they lost. There are statues to Timur who did just as bad in his day but won.
If you win no one cares if were a decent person

 

[Son of Butch]

If we had lost the war, I would've been tried as a war criminal. - General Cutis LeMay

Regarding his decision to do massive napalm incendiary fire bombing of Tokyo and 65 other cities. The bombings began in March 1945 and ended just before the war's conclusion only because the entire supply of napalm was depleted. In Tokyo alone an estimated 100,000 civilians were killed and over 1 million were left homeless.