Ah, History!

I remain amazed that people jump to express opinions founded on nothing but their emotions. Now it is okay for someone to express an opinion. That's truly a First Amendment right. But when it has no reality to back it up, it is just irresponsible and can be ignored ... or challenged and corrected. That's another person's right.
The current attack on a defenseless statue of Robert E. Lee is a case of this. It presumes to spring from the "knowledge" that Lee was BAD, but doesn't provide any sense in which that is truth.
Lee was an interesting person. He had pride in his home state (VA) and stood by it even when the people of the state were going in a direction he didn't approve of. The truth is that Lee had always held that slavery was a political and moral evil. He held that opinion for a long time. His wife (and I suppose with his approval) taught their slaves (and yes, they had them) to read and write and prepared them to assume their freedom (manumission) that the Lees assumed would come in the near future. Lee had said that freedom from slavery was a reasonable outcome and could not be "forced" at the barrel of a gun.
Lee was also against secession. But he did believe in states' rights. The general opinion on this was that the states freely chose to unite to form the Union, and should be allowed to freely chose to separate from the Union if they wanted. Of course the Union, led by the North, held that they didn't have that right ... therefore the conflict and resulting civil war.
When Lee surrendered to Grant (his West Point fellow graduate) they both emphasized that no rebellion against the outcome should be carried on. Neither Lee nor Grant denied that Virginia was to remain in the Union.
So why the displeasure (hatred?) of the statue of Lee? He was honorable to his duty and to his word. He went on to be a leader in the war with Mexico. His statue should remain standing and his history can be seen as the reasonable, honest, and open man that he was.
I object to mobs, gangs, and thugs making decisions based on false "history" for law abiding citizens.
And when politicians cave in to their bullying demands, I weep for my country.