Saturday, January 17, 2015

The Unchanging Lee: On the General's Birthday, 2015

 

Not even history can be told to stay the same in this ever-changing world. It changes, and our memory of all those figures who made it, heroes and villains alike, changes with it. Sometimes the heroes and villains even change roles, for all history turns out to be revision. Revisionist history is something of a redundant term; in a way all history is revisionist.

Events in the past may have taken place only once, but they are recounted again and again, and with every retelling may change. In that sense, nothing is more mutable than the past. No wonder it stays so politically relevant. Indeed, you can trace the course of political fashion in how different generations view figures like Robert E. Lee -- and Martin Luther King Jr. -- at different times.

The greater the historic figure, the greater the changes may be.

More @ Townhall

11 comments:

  1. Don' t forget, April 26th is Confederate Day - a National Holiday. Hurrah

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    1. :) ! It's May 10th in NC, but the more the merrier!

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  2. Even John Adams (in his day) knew of this. "Do not now let our posterity be dilluded with fictions...", or "Nothing is so false as Euopean history except modern American history."

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  3. Lee was well loved. President to-be Abraham Lincoln offered command of the Union army to Lee in 1861, but he refused. He said, ‘I cannot raise my hand against my birthplace, my home, my children.’
    I do hope the Confederate Flag will be flying high all over and esp. at Lee's Chapel.
    I went to college in Milledgeville, GA. A great old Southern town.


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    1. No, Ga. College. Milledgeville had a parade for Lee on Saturday.

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    2. Keep the South Southern!
      https://www.facebook.com/events/578475385541614

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    3. http://gascv.org/2015-annual-robert-e-lee-birthday-celebration/

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    4. Thanks and I'll look for some pictures.

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