Robert E. Lee statue's importance has superseded the importance of the human heart
Just in time for Halloween, a video was released of a bearded man in what appeared to be the fires of hell, his face surgically sliced from his head, his features melted in Munchian fashion as his eyes dripped from their widening sockets and ghastly holes appeared on the real estate once occupied by his nose, mouth and ears.
It was an unglamorous end for the Southern general Bobby Lee, whose Richmond statue was melted down secretly in the dark of night to prevent the predictable outpouring of support and — because it’s as good an excuse as any — violence over such a blatant assault on American freedoms.
Safe to say, the majority of Americans in 1865 who despised the traitorous general would have cheerfully hanged him on the spot, right alongside with any two-bit politician with temerity to suggest that to do so would be “woke” — whatever that was.
More than a generation went by before tempers had cooled enough, even in the South, for Lee to be venerated in bronze on Richmond’s Monument Row, where he was tolerated and/or idolized for 131 years before coming down in the heat of the George Floyd murder.
Despite the greatness ascribed to Robert E. Lee — some deserved, some the result of a 150-year PR campaign by a fact-twisting segment that would whitewash slavery with watery pigment of state autonomy — the general was basically Rudy Giuliani with a horse.
He was better at generaling than Rudy was at lawyering, but both wanted precisely the same thing: to get their way, even though their way ran contrary to the Constitution and the will of a majority of the American people. Lee resorted to violence; Giuliani resorted to hair black under hot klieg lights. Neither came out well.
Maybe in 35 years someone will put up a statue of Giuliani, although the chances of this seem as remote as putting up a statue of Lee would have seemed in 1865.
But if some group wanted to put up a statue of Rudy (Daughters of American MAGA?) would it be wrong to? Should anyone care? Context would matter, it can be supposed. Are we talking about a museum or a public plaza where, some pearl clutching liberals will fear, little kids will walk past and decide that they want to be just like him?
Groups that have suffered persecution under movements or people have every right to voice their aversion at those who are glorified in public spaces. But a relevant question becomes whether any racist, Neo Confederate anger came down with the statue, or whether it only petrified into a substance harder than marble and bronze.
Entire college courses are taught on symbols and the importance of symbolism, and maybe that’s part of the problem — their importance has superseded the importance of the human heart.
No doubt there are more than a few people devoted to American ideals for whom the American flag has lost a bit of its luster now that it has been co-opted by a gang of dullards who believe it stands for oppression, authoritarianism and hatred.
Yet the flag didn’t do anything wrong. In time it will be fine.
It is unlikely that Lee’s statue caused anyone to become a racist anymore than myriad Martin Luther King boulevards have caused any racists to become tolerant.
And lest it feel singled out, the Confederacy can perhaps take comfort that the Union Gen. Winfield Scott is losing his bird. Scott’s oriole is among those being renamed by American Ornithological Society because human names “can be harmful, exclusive and detract from the focus, appreciation or consideration of the birds themselves.”
Scott’s offense was overseeing the displacement of American Indians from their homelands in what became known as the Trail of Tears. He was ordered to do so by President Andrew Jackson who, last check, was still alive and well on our twenty-dollar bills.
This bird purge recalls the clumsy effort to rename the gypsy moth the I-honestly-forget-what moth, because the name “gypsy” is viewed by some but not all gypsies as derogatory.
So John James Audobon must stand at the pearly gates of the birdhouse judging the souls of ornithologists and public figures past to determine their worthiness. No, not Audubon — he was a slaveholder — but someone of even purer heart.
Re-learning bird names feels less like justice than it does re-buying music because the technology has changed from CD to MP3.
My sympathies fall with Montana ornithologist Jeff Marks who said, “I’m not super enthusiastic about it, but neither am I super disappointed about it. Maybe in the scheme of things that’s just not that big of a deal.”
The day we, all of us, can feel the same way about Lee will be a great day for America.
Tim Rowland is a Herald-Mail columnist.
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This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Melting down of Lee statue won't change the hearts of racists
