Liberals who seek to change the name of one of the city’s oldest high schools are trying to revise American history. They use the race card because it is a standard liberal tactic.
It is doubtful that his detractors have a tenth of the courage, integrity and character of Robert E. Lee.
Lee opposed secession, which he called “anarchy” and he labeled slavery “a moral and political evil.”
In one of the most difficult decisions of his life, he resigned from the Union Army and later was given command of the Confederate Army. His military skill is universally admired.
In 1865, Lee became president of Washington College (later Washington and Lee University) in Lexington, Va. There, he supported reconciliation between North and South, becoming a national symbol of reconciliation and the reintegration of former Confederates into the war-torn nation.
On Jan. 30, 1975, Senate Joint Resolution 23, a measure to restore posthumously full rights of citizenship to Gen. R. E. Lee was introduced into the Senate by Sen. Harry F. Byrd Jr., I-Va. The resolution was passed, signed by President Gerald Ford on Sept. 5, and became Public Law 94–67.
In 1900, Lee was one of the first 29 people selected for the Hall of Fame for Great Americans, on the Bronx campus of New York University.
However, his bust was removed spitefully in 2017 by liberal Democrat New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
Cuomo now is under fire for sexual harassment of a number of women and is blamed for causing the deaths of thousands of nursing home residents. Which of those two men belongs in a hall of fame?
Lee has appeared on U.S. postage stamps five times. Cuomo none.
Lee was described thusly by a Georgia legislator: “He was a foe without hate; a friend without treachery; a soldier without cruelty; a victor without oppression, and a victim without murmuring. He was a public officer without vices; a private citizen without wrong; a neighbor without reproach; a Christian without hypocrisy, and a man without guile. He was a Caesar, without his ambition; Frederick, without his tyranny; Napoleon, without his selfishness, and Washington, without his reward.”
Changing the name given Lee High School nearly a century ago will not improve the education of students in the school or accomplish any public good.
The Civil War is over. Slavery has ended. Despite efforts by liberals to link them with current events, the fact is that they are part of the national history and should be taught as such, rather than being used for political causes today.
Trying to keep Americans divided today as they were then is evil and liberals who are doing so for political reasons should stop fomenting hate and embrace unity, as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert E. Lee did.
