Parts of Dixie celebrated Robert E. Lee day on Monday

[kpete]

Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Parts of Dixie celebrated Robert E. Lee day on Monday
by Chris in Paris on 1/18/2011 07:22:00 PM

Maybe it's like celebrating Hermann Göring day in Germany. Oh that's right. That would be in bad taste but Germany has the common sense not to celebrate a failed military leader that worked for a morally wrong cause. How in the world could anyone celebrate someone who fought to defend such a despicable cause? It's in especially bad taste to celebrate Lee on the day that should be for Martin Luther King, Jr. who was a great American.

Arkansas state employees will have Monday off, in honor of Martin Luther King Jr . – and General Robert E. Lee, commanding officer of the Confederate Army.

Every year, the doors of the state Capitol bear notices that offices will be closed the third Monday of January to honor Dr. King and Gen. Lee. Arkansas is one of three states to commemorate both men with a state holiday. The others are Alabama and Mississippi.

"I know my students that come to the university seem to come with a bit of nostalgia for the Old South ... particularly Robert E. Lee, who has the mystique of being the man who only reluctantly seceded," said University of Arkansas history professor Jeannie M. Whayne. "He's become, well, one book's title says it all, The Marble Man, the ideal of the Southerner."

http://www.americablog.com/2011/01/parts-of-dixie-celebrated-robert-e-lee.html

[pscot]

1. How loathsome is that

[Saphire]

2. My kids went to Robt. E. Lee High School. They were the Rebels, but now

they are called the Volunteers.

[ZombieHorde]

3. WTF? nt

[silverlib]

4. Tomorrow is Confederate Heroes Day in Texas...

for State employees, it's a skeleton crew day. as long as the State can continue business, employees can take off without using annual leave or sick leave. Is Arkansas combining the two?

Confederate Heroes Day is obnoxious but even Texas doesn't mix the two.

[hughee99]

5. If Lee had made a different decision,

he would have commanded the Union Army during the Civil War (Lincoln offered him the job). Still, not appropriate to celebrate his birthday along or instead of MLK, but I always found that interesting.

[Hugabear]

6. Where's that Confederate bingo card?

I saw someone post it not too long ago.

[derby378]

7. Robert E. Lee was an abolitionist who opposed segregation

The only reason he sided with the Confederacy was because Virginia was his home, and when Virginia voted to secede, he could not in good conscience march an army against his own countrymen.

I'm sure Jefferson Davis considered the whole arrangement most peculiar, but also felt fortunate to have Lee in command of the rebel army.

[Hugabear]

9. I guess that's why he owned slaves and beat them?

http://radgeek.com/gt/2005/01/03/robert-e-lee-owned-slaves-and-defended-slavery/

The whole "Lee didn't own slaves and opposed slavery" idea is nothing more than revisionist bullshit.

[derby378]

10. That's the first time I've ever heard that from anyone...

...so all snark aside, I consider your link very interesting.

[Hugabear]

13. You're welcome

Sorry for the snark, but I'm not very fond of people who take up arms against their country. IMHO, the Confederacy was no better than the right-wing militias we currently have, the only difference is today's militas don't have state support.

[bvar22]

27. "take up arms against their country"

"I'm not very fond of people who take up arms against their country" ???

You prefer King George?

[Hugabear]

We were colonies - big difference

The southern states were not colonies.

[digitaln3rd]

18. Not that I condone it but

Jefferson and Washington owned slaves too but they're held up in high esteem.

[NoGOPZone]

12. 'Against his own countrymen'? I'm pretty sure that's what he ended up doing. nt

[fishwax]

26. he wasn't an abolitionist -- he considered the abolitionist movement a bigger evil than slavery

[Codeine]

34. That's nonsense.

He was a slaveowner, for god's sake.

[Drale]

8. If Lee was alive today

he would be horrified. I might just figure out how to raise the dead, just so I can bring back the founding fathers and a few other people including Lee so they can collectively spit in the repukes faces.

[Brilliantrocket]

11. Lee was opposed to slavery

From a 1856 letter "In this enlightened age, there are few I believe, but what will acknowledge, that slavery as an institution, is a moral and political evil in any country. It is useless to expatiate on its disadvantages. I think it however a greater evil to the white man than to the black race, & while my feelings are strongly enlisted in behalf of the latter, my sympathies are more strong for the former."

[Hugabear]

14. Wrong.

http://radgeek.com/gt/2005/01/03/robert-e-lee-owned-slaves-and-defended-slavery/

Check it out and enlighten yourself. That quote you posted was pulled out of context, and doesn't paint the entire picture.

[demosincebirth]

21. Lee was a staunch slave owner. He chased them and personally whipped some

Grant should have hung him and all the treasonous military officers who took the oath to protect the United States from enemies foreign and domestic.

[fishwax]

29. no, not really

I noticed you stopped the quote from his letter immediately before he says that slavery is basically necessary for the benefit of the enslaved: "The blacks are immeasurably better off here than in Africa, morally, physically, and socially. The painful discipline they are undergoing is necessary for their further instruction as a race, and will prepare them, I hope, for better things. How long their servitude may be necessary is known and ordered by a merciful Providence."

And, of course, the letter you are quoting from was actually written to express Lee's approval of President Franklin Pierce's opposition to abolitionists.

[Raine]

15. Doing that makes them look like IDIOTS

I don't understand people like that. :-(

[Blue-Jay]

16. I'm declaring Wednesday, Jan 19 as William Tecumseh Sherman Day.

[Raine]

17. Sounds good to me

I'm in favor of that, let's celebrate Sherman's March to the Sea. :thumbsup: I wonder how they would like that, probably not so much but too bad.

[FLPanhandle]

22. Then you'll need an Native American Day to make up for him

Sherman was outspoken in his belief that Indian policy should be set by the army, and that the aim of Indian policy should be to place the various tribes on reservations and force them to stay there. He once declared that all Indians not on reservations "are hostile and will remain so until killed off." As a member of the peace commission that negotiated the Medicine Lodge Treaty of 1867 and the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, he was partly able to put his beliefs into practice, influencing the assignment of tribes each to its own separate and limited territory.

Sherman became general commander of the United States Army in 1869, and in this position directed a series of campaigns that finally crushed Indian resistance across the plains. He perceived clearly the devastating effectiveness of striking at the economic basis of the Plains Indians' lives, once commenting to General Philip Sheridan that "it would be wise to invite all the sportsmen of England and America... for a Grand Buffalo Hunt, and make one grand sweep of them all." And he endorsed Sheridan's innovation of attacking Indian encampments during the winter, when their supplies and mobility were both severely limited. With Sheridan as his field commander, Sherman moved first against the Kiowas and Comanches of the southern Plains, then against the Lakota and Cheyenne of the north. By the late 1870s, these and the other once free-roaming warrior tribes of the plains had been forced onto reservations.

http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/s_z/sherman.htm

He learned well how to make war on civilians.

[Blue-Jay]

25. OK. That will be Thurs, Jan 20th.

I declare it to be so.

So let it be written. So let it be done.

One more day, and we can have an entire week off!

[Critters2]

31. I like the way you think! Hmm...who else needs memorializin"? nt

[Blue-Jay]

35. Easy! Robbie Benson was born on 1-21-1955.

That's a day off in celebration of his awesome contributions to the American way of life.

Here he is portraying Native American gold medalist Billy Mills, because no Native American actors were available that week:

[dsc]

19. actually it was worse in MS when I was there

then it was either MLK day or a celebration of Jefferson Davis. I think that was the compromise it took to get the day recognized but it still stank to high heaven.

[Gman]

20. I believe Lincoln wanted Lee to command the Union troops

but his allegiance was to Virginia.

[MadBadger]

23. Whether or not Lee opposed Slavery is irrelevant

They celebrate somebody from the confederacy to offset celebrating somebody who is black.

[hootinholler]

24. Someone told me to have a nice James Earl Ray day

But I did not know that about those states.

-Hoot

[NoGOPZone]

28. If you're the type who likes to stir things up

wish the person who told you that a Happy Colin Ferguson Day, who was born on January 14th.

[Blue-Jay]

30. I'd rather have a nice James Earl Jones day

In this photo, he's considering the social ramifications of stealing Cher's favorite wig:

[hootinholler]

36. That photo is simply

Disturbing.

-Hoot

[Blue-Jay]

39. If by "disturbing" you mean "awesome", I totally agree.

[opihimoimoi]

32. The dude sent thousands to their deaths and wounds at Gettysburg....a very poor General

He lost the war.

[neverforget]

33. The only good thing Lee did was to disobey Jefferson Davis'

orders to disperse the Army of Northern Virginia and continue the war with guerrilla warfare. Instead he surrendered to Grant who gave him very generous terms.

[opihimoimoi]

37. Tried to clean up his act he did....enough death and suffering I suppose.

[Odin2005]

38. How dare thet celebrate that fucking traitor.

[MattBaggins]

40. We should counter with State Holidays in the North celebrating Sherman.

[HEyHEY]

41. Cut those parts off federal dollars.

[Zoeisright]

42. When in the hell are they going to realize they LOST?

I mean, their obsession with the Civil War, and celebrating racism is just plain sick.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

43. Makes me sick in Texas.

They lost and they need to get over it.

The Stars and Bars -- It's the Reason for the Treason.

I'd get firebombed if I put that on my fence.

[mdmc]

44. ..