03-20-2017, 05:57 PM
(03-20-2017, 03:20 PM)Millhouse Wrote: Lee was far more honorable of anyone mentioned on that list with maybe the exception of Rommel. But his greatest misfortune was that he was born in Virginia, and was a product of the times of his state as he would own slaves himself through his wife. He was against secession though and was not a proponent of it, but that wasnt enough to persuade him to fight against his own state after they seceded as he couldnt raise his hand against Virginia when it came down to it.
Now should he be honored on MLK day, no. Should Lee be typecasted as a historical bad guy, no. When his army invaded the north, they were forbidden to rape and murder the northern civilians, unlike what the northern armies did when they were invading the south. And when the time came to surrender, he did so honorably and urged the rest of the south to do so peacefully as he backed President's Johnson's reconstruction plan.
The comparison to Rommel is a good one. As a career military man, especially in a country in which the military and political system are inviolately separate, how do you reconcile your loyalty and commitment to a cause that you find to be unjust? Both men did their best to maintain personal integrity under difficult circumstances.
As to OP, celebrating anything Confederacy related on MLK day smacks of either stupidity or, far more likely, deliberate provocation.
