Shall We Defend Our Common History?

Why don't we honor Lee? Why don't we honor Benedict Arnold?
Both were traitors to the United States of America.

I agree 100%. People look at history through the lens of current understanding and biases. This failure diminishes great men and distorts history. If we bother to look down we all have clay feet. Is the Workd better because America existed? Did we eventually end slavery? Have we worked to establish equal rights? We acknowledge the clay feet but we should also honor the great promises great men inbodied in our form of government. There are many honorable attributes Lee possessed. Instead of erasing him from history we should learn from hm.

I don't dispute you obviously raise an interesting point, however, lemme tell you a story my Dad told me, when he, my Mom, and my younger fraternal twin brothers went to Gettysburg to see the battlefield and all the other stuff there and nearby, OK? My Dad had actually looked at the field of Pickett's charge, and had, I think, been yakking with one of the park rangers about some of the history of it. His basic reaction, as he stood there looking at it, was that, to his way of thinking, that Pickett had been insane to even want to do it, since Longstreet essentially, as he related later on, and exhibited at that moment, pretty much knew what was gonna happen. Then, too, he thought Lee had been, at least to his mind, a jackass for even thinking of ordering it. I'm not saying my Dad was right or wrong for thinking all that, my wife and I also were there, though I wasn't thinking that while we were, I just recall my Dad voicing the thought, honest, OK? Once, also, when I'd interviewed for a clinical program up in Maine, I had occasion, purely by accident, to stay at what I'd initially, albeit erroneously, had thought was a motel, it turned out to be a bed and breakfast, owned by two partners, they weren't married or anything, they just did it as a business, one a guy, the other a woman...anyway, they had a quite incredible library of all their combined collections in one room, that I'd been leafing through, purely out of curiosity. One of the books was owned by the woman, who was apparently, I found out, an inveterate Southerner...the book was a bio on Lee, I forget by who, the thing that got me, though, was an inscription somebody had scrawled on the flyleaf...I never knew if by her, the female owner, or by a friend or family...what got me was what it said, "To Robert E. Lee, who's people still miss him." Now, the thing I mused about, as I saw it, was that, in fact, the book wasn't all that old, it was a mid 20th-century volume, comparatively recent, so, whover scrawled that apparently did so relatively recently, historically. My point in relating that, as well as the thing my Dad said, is this: Lee was very historically flawed, at least to my way of thinking; I don't deny the brilliance, the character, his role in the Mexican War, the whole Harper's Ferry thing where he and USMC (not Army, as I'd read later) captured John Brown. The thing is, everybody remembers Lee...no one ever remembers Albert Sydney Johnston, who'd actually been commanding the Confederate Army before Lee became famous, who was lost at Shiloh, and who became, at least from what I've seen and read, a pretty much lost footnote to history. Everyone wants to focus on all the memorable attributes of Lee, just as everyone wants to focus on his Mom having told him to venerate Washington. Washington, as I'd read awhile ago, may well have had a son with a slave, names Venus, the son being West Ford, as you also no doubt may have heard, the family of West Ford has had an oral tradition going back two centuries that Washington was their ancestor, they've been pestering the Mt. Vernon management staff, I'd read, maybe even the ladies association that runs the place, to allow DNA testing of samples that still exist of Washington's hair, against the remains of West Ford, which, presumably, could be exhumed, to try to settle the whole thing once and for all. Another little dark side gem by George and Martha I'd seen a YouTube video about, and also read about recently, was that they'd apparently persecuted and pursued a female slave who'd off from them while they'd been in Pennsylvania with her, names Oney Judge, there's a Wikipedia page on her, I think. They never left the poor woman alone, who eventually did get away from them, and was never captured, she married, had a family, she with her family lived in New England somewhere, Vermont or New Hampshire, maybe, I forget now. Even Monticello finally gave up denying about Sally Hemmings, and built a whole room in the house, memorializing her, I saw another YouTube video about presidential descendants, actually a couple, one of the guys was, apparently, a descendant of Jefferson and Sally Hemmings. So, here's the thing: As I'd seen in the film Ben-Hur, the 1957 classic, Pontius Pilate saying to Ben-Hur (Charlton Heston): "Where there is greatness, error, also, is great." One can simultaneously admire, I suppose, the ostensible and/or demonstrate good in Lee, in Jackson, in all the major Confederate figures. At the same time, one can also decry the needless loss of life in the Civil War, the sheer butchery of Pickett's charge, Lee and just about all of the other major Confederate figures not releasing their slaves, and refusing to exchange prisoners with Grant, when Grant insisted on including all the soldiers, including former slaves who'd been captured. History is often about seriously flawed societies, and individuals in those societies...even genuine heroes like Lincoln could have a semi-dark side, allowing 38 prisoners to be hanged in Mankato, MN, during the 1862 U.S.-Dakota War, even though he personally intervened and saved several hundred more, in reviewing their files (one was actually hanged erroneously, I'd also read). Harding was shown to have had an illegitimate daughter while he'd been in the White House, Grant once actually got a speeding ticket by, I'd read, an African-American police officer in from of the White House for speeding in a wagon with someone in the wagon with him, when he'd apparently been drunk, Grant, to his credit, told the officer, who knew quite well who Grant was, despite his embarrassment, to actually give him the ticket, then paid it. My point is, history, incl. American history, is virtually replete with such examples...take FDR being involved with that personal friend of Eleanor, and their own daughter letting the female friend sit with FDR at Warm Springs, GA, instead of Eleanor, for which Eleanor was understandably furious, after FDR was lost there, and she found out only afterward...I could go on and on with the list...however, what differed with Lee, as well as all the other major Confederate historical figures, is that, despite all the butchery, despite all the slavery horrors, some sort of weird nostalgia for "The Lost Cause" has apparently persisted to the present day, somehow placing Lee on some sort of pedestal, despite all he did to continue, and help promulgate, the whole thing...merely because he exhibited admirable attributes earlier on can't pardon his evident exhibited character flaws later...I saw a biopic with James Mason playing Rommel, with an interesting quote by Churchill at the end, that Churchill had evidently made in the House of Commons, after Rommel was assassinated after his involvement in the Jul 20, 1944, for his involvement to try to blow up the German monster at Wolf's Lair...Churchill apparently said one could admire him for his gallantry, or words to that effect, as well as recognize that he did finally realize, albeit too late, what that German monster really was...the last part said that, in the bleak wars of the 20th century, there was little room for chivalry...I think what has happened with Lee is pretty much similar...I'm obviously not trying to equate Rommel with Lee, certainly, by any stretch of imagination...I'm merely pointing out that, apparently, even Churchill was sensible of his enemies having admirable attributes, despite clearly exhibited character flaws, which Lee certainly had...the Confederacy spawned the whole horrible Jim Crow era, and the whole civil-rights thing...that alone, to my way of thinking, represents more than sufficient justification, regardless of any positive virtues he might have concommitantly exhibited, to justify removing all monuments to him, and the other major Confederate figures, to getting rid of the Stars and Bars from public buildings, and all the rest...there was another thread on here a day or so ago, about a bell in a church, that'd been found to have a swastika carved into it, that complaints were lodged about, in Germany...to me, and I obviously realize these are purely my thoughts, I just can't help equating slavery as being at least arguably, as well as fundamentally, similar, in many ways, to Fascism...I'm not saying the analogy is exact, certainly...I'm merely suggesting what seems to me, at any rate, to be a reasonably clear analogy, that's my sole point...I know you're going to likely disagree with my thoughts, as will many here...I merely wanted to emphasize, I did read what you said, I did very seriously consider it, and just thought I'd try to give my corresponding thoughts, as they'd occurred to me, after mulling over all you'd mentioned...I hope that all might at least make some sense, if nothing else, I'd be most eager to hear any thoughts and/or reactions from everyone, whenever time might permit, of course, no rush, many thanks.