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Will we forget 9/11? Have we already?
Our memories of our national history only last as long as they appear to be of value. Our students should know that.
Robert E. Lee was a racist traitor who led the slaughter of more American soldiers than any other military leader in the history of the United States.
That fact was pretty obvious to most Americans in 1865, in 1870, even in 1875. It continued to be clear, at least north of the Mason-Dixon Line through the rest of the 19th Century as the Republican Party nominated former Union Army Officer after former Union Army Officer for the presidency.
But three things then happened. After William McKinley the Republicans ran out of likely Civil War veteran nominees. The white supremacist southern leaders had rewritten their American history in order to justify Jim Crow laws, and a key part of that was to remake Lee into some bizarre gentle conflicted patriot who was both the nation’s greatest general and an opponent of the slaughter of war. Finally, the Democrats nominated for president a northern “progressive” who had lived through the Civil War in the south (our only president to…
