General Lee
 

Monument Avenue in Richmond, VA. will never be the same. They have removed the statue. They don't even know the history of Gen. Lee.

Some are trying to erase history.

Removing a statue does not change history.

Just low hanging fruit for some.

General Lee
 

Another sad display of arrogance and stupidity. I am waiting for a notice from the left wing morons that my middle name is no longer going to be tolerated by our enlightened government and declaring my parents were wrong when they chose it in honor of General Lee. When will they stop trying to erase our American history?

Good question---probably need to look at what stopped Adolph from burning books

You can put history in a closet but it keeps coming back at you in many ways.

Robert E. Lee was a great soldier and man. Robert E. Lee - Wikipedia

Such a foolish thing to do. Our kids are never going to know the history of our great country.

You cannot just the past based on the present but can learn how we got here today.

Lee
 

Really, kids won't know the history of our great country since a Robert E Lee statue was taken down?

Grew up in Wisconsin. Don't believe there were any Lee statues there or anywhere in the Midwest and probably most of the rest of the USA other than the South. Somehow millions of Americans learned US history without seeing statues of Lee. Amazing!

Monuments typically celebrate the winners, and the honored dead who fought for our country. Robert E. Lee was neither. His monument -should- be reconstructed and placed in a museum of some kind, because the monument itself is an official Historic Monument. But the thing this monument represents doesn't need to be on public display in the middle of a park.

The history is: The south LOST. The Confederacy LOST. He wasn't even very good at being a hero - he ultimately surrendered to Grant at the end of the war.

He led 15 battles during the Civil War. He was victorious in only 5 of them. He was defeated in the first battle, the last battle, and two other battles. The rest were inconclusive, and during one of them, Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

There is nothing about Robert E. Lee that warrants his statue being on display in a public park, UNLESS you want to glorify his attempts at maintaining blacks being officially considered inferior and sub-human.

As measured by today's standards/views.

What did the folks who decided to have the statue made and placing it where it is/was....thinking when they decided to go forward?

The will and intent of the people of the past cannot be measured by the distorted special interests of today.

Lee, Robert E. (1807-1870), soldier | American National Biography

I did find this quite interesting. It is by a well respected military historian-- Russell F. Weigley Russell Weigley - Wikipedia

You are correct…..removing a statue does not change history…..opposing CRT certainly changes it and removes facts from it. History should be a chronicle of the past, not how we want it to be…..not how we wish it were, but how it was.

Best lesson for young folks is to understand real honest history and do better as they grow.

Yeah way up in Connecticut we learned about the Civil War, also known as the War Between the States (among others). We learned that Lee was a general of the Confederate States - which no longer exists except in the minds of those who refuse to accept that the Confederacy lost the war.

We had no statues of Lee in my town, and we had no problem learning about him and the various battles. He should've just given up in Antietam. If I was a Confederate Southerner I would not want his statue being honored in my town's public park. Maybe a memorial statue to honor ALL the dead, like we have now with military memorials. But his role in the Civil War should not be glorified or celebrated.

I’m all for teaching the history of the civil war and studying the battlefield tactics of confederate officers.I also have no problem with statues honoring the average confederate soldier, but to. Put statues up to honor traitors and to name military posts for generals who broke there oath to this country I find appalling .I have felt like this since high school and just walking around any New England town and seeing.the monuments to those who died only strengthens that opinion . I don’t believe in capital execution but Jeff Davis Robert Lee and the next 5 top politicians and generals should have been hanged for the carnage they caused, and now feel free to tell me about the so called Noble Cause that is sinking in to the new history it will probably come from the same people who are complaining about history being washed out

The statue was erected in 1890, on Monument Avenue, which existed to glorify and celebrate people who fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War. Glorify and Celebrate - the people who rejected the Union (which was, at the time, what we know now as the United States of America) and fought against it. This war, this Civil War, was the culmination of an attempt to overturn the government. An insurrection of "monumental" proportions (pun intended). The population in Richmond was mostly wealthy white people and poverty-stricken black people. The abolition of slavery only happened 25 years prior, so most adults living there were former slaves with no job, no prospects, few people willing to actually PAY them to work. I would venture to guess that the blacks living in Richmond would not have been very happy to see the figure of their former oppressor be placed proudly and prominently in their town center.

Making Sense of Robert E. Lee
|
History

| Smithsonian Magazine

This is worth a look.

Where are these mythical museums where they're putting all of these statues?

I'm glad they took it down...

Racism is now solved and we'll not have to hear about it any more...


Wait, what?

What Should West Point Do About Its Robert E. Lee Problem? - Modern War Institute

How about General Robert E. Lee as seen by cadets at West Point in 2020? The comments after the article are worth a long look.

Have you noticed that our children and grandchildren go to school and learn very little about our history.

Perhaps when they see a statue they might be interested in learning more about the man and the times he lived in.

Took a ride down Monument Ave. last year and only saw two statues. Arthur Ashe and Robert E. Lee. Kind of ironic don't you think?

Anyhow the Lee statue was quite a sight to see with every square inch of the pedestal covered with graffiti.

The 'victors' always manage to rewrite history and to a large degree the losers, too. Japan has removed all mention of the atrocities perpetrated by their troops such as The Rape Of Nanjing, their beheading of prisoners, etc. etc. Now our civil war was fought for one reason and one reason only, the noble pursuit of abolishing slavery. It's almost totally untrue, but heh what does that matter?

The previous president disagrees with your assessment of Lee's ability.

..."If only we had Robert E. Lee to command our troops in Afghanistan, that disaster would have ended in a complete and total victory many years ago"...

Amazing.

No I have not at all. Most kids are hungry to learn, and that should be something we all instill in them.

A real student of history which has been exhibited over the years !!!

Maybe a Sherman with his March to the Sea kind of scorched earth tactics. That does not make any friends in that area for the future though. Scorched earth | Military Wiki | Fandom

I am from Richmond.

All of the tearing down of the city is one of the reasons I left recently. No, not a big reason, but just another check on the Pro/Con list of reasons to leave.

I get that the monuments are symbols with different meanings to the different types of people that live in the city. If I were black, it would remind me of just how troubled my existence may have been 150 years ago, and continuing to present.

Had we decided as a city to address things and let everyone make a case, it is possible that the monuments could have been respectfully moved to a more appropriate place (such as a national civil war battlefield). Yet, we didn't have those discussions and we had a summer of rage where every manner of illegal activity was allowed to flourish in Richmond. The monuments were defaced. A feel good moment for some, and an insult to others. Civility was on vacation and a line was drawn -- My Tribe or Your Tribe.

Richmond is famous for its past and it cannot escape it. Unlike Charleston and New Orleans and others, Richmond is unable to celebrate the very bad and the good -- hold it up to the truth of the past. The original White House of the Confederacy was in Richmond. The "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death" speech by Patrick Henry from a hundred years earlier is only blocks away. Edgar Allen Poe had a home another block or two away. Mr. Bojangles was a Richmonder. Arthur Ashe was born in Richmond. The QB from the Seahawks, Russel Wilson, is a Richmonder -- my friend coached him in high school -- he said he was a better baseball player than he was at football -- imagine that.


Richmond even had an opportunity to host the national slave museum and somehow it decided against it. Richmond was one of the top locations in America for the importation of human labor (slaves). It would have been fitting to have the National Slave Museum adjacent to the White House of the Confederacy on grand Church Hill. Richmond could have capitalized on its past and gave context to those bronze and granite statues. Context that might be hard to accept by some, and ever-so needed for others.

Instead, like so many urban areas, the city erupted into an unrecognizable orgy of ropes, chains, spray paint, broken windows, and fires. Buses burned in the street, buildings set ablaze, shops looted. The summer was long and hot, covid was raging, and social justice flames fanned hotter. Interesting to note, the vast majority of the faces of the agitators were pale, not brown or black.

I drove downtown weeks later and it looked like something from a picture of a war zone.

I realized that it wasn't a place for me any more. Richmond cannot celebrate its history, it can only tear it down. The thing is, it all still happened.

One step further, under Communism history is rewritten with every change of leadership. In most countries history is just conveniently reinterpreted. And other countries are ashamed of theirs. Each to their own.

Lee lost the war against the United States of America, praise God.

Taking down statues is much like burning books you don't agree with, leaving it up as a something to provoke ( a reasoned) discussion of history would seem to this "Joe Six pack" a better course

That statue has been up for decades with no protests. Now, all of a sudden, its offensive. Boohoo. I have never heard anyone ever feel the statue was meant to look at blacks as inferior. Sounds like a personal opinion and not fact

Best lesson for young folks to learn is that history is written by the VICTORS. Doesn’t necessarily include all the facts nor is the information necessarily unbiased. Maybe all history written by victors should be offset by history written by the defeated, and the people understand that the truth is probably somewhere in the middle.

Only history is "He Lost"!

Unvaccinated adults are putting our unvaccinated children at risk. The kids under 12 can't get vaccinated yet. Therefore, responsible adults have a responsibility to protect them in any way we can. Irresponsible adults who won't get vaccinated need to be pressured in whatever way possible in order to protect the kids.

Ignorance runs rampant thru the empty hallways of your mind!

What a disgrace. The profanity was so intense they couldn't show it on tv.
Hopefully they all feel better now.

Incredible. So, should we tear down the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial since WE lost?

They don’t know the history of anything. Our history is being wiped out and not taught anymore.

GEN Lee
 

What people may not realize is that the North actually asked Lee to fight for them. Also, Lee did not have slaves and was against slavery.

BRAVO, well said. Lee was a traitor to the US Constitution and fought to keep slaves. Would have he won in Afghanistan? Haaaa

The soldiers in the Revolutionary War took over the airports to win the war. The man knows history. Which foot had bone spurs?