Saturday, June 27, 2015

Robert E. Lee ~~ TRAITOR

As some of my readers are aware, I am a former History major; and, though my speciality was pre-Classical through early Modern (pre-1825) European history, I still do have a decent background in American history and government.  
This country was founded during the 18th Century and its immediate starting was NOT sanguine.  The Articles of Confederation was a document that only provided a very loose sort of alliance to the former British colonies that would later form the United States of America.  Yes, we were NOT the USA at the end of the Revolution.  It seems as though the South in particular never forgot that older part of our history.  This was probably because of the fact that the "alliance" was just that, an alliance, something that could be abandoned at a whim.  The Articles lasted about 4-5 years, failing horribly. The Constitutional Convention was called in Philadelphia in order to draw up a better document.  This document which starts with the ringing words WE THE PEOPLE... created the country which we know as the United States of America, a country entire of itself.
Of course, there were problems with this original document.  Human beings make mistakes, even mistakes of grievous moral turpitude (slavery).  To call a human being who happens to have a different colour skin a mere percentage of human is disgusting and evil.  Personally, I do not believe in the biological concept of race.  Everyone on this planet is within 3% of each other genetically.  This is why documents can and should be revised.  The Bill of Rights is one such way that such revisions can occur in the Constitution.  The Supreme Court is another.  Of course, we sometimes have to wait for the stupidity level to go down enough in order to make these most needed changes because of the cupidity of many of our politicians.
Now, to go back to Robert E. Lee.  We can say that he was an educated man.  Yet, he had a streak of Southern stupidity which can be traced to The Articles of Confederation.  The State of Virginia is NOT above the country to which it holds its allegiance.  The state proclaimed rebellion against that allegiance.  The fact that they named themselves the "CONFEDERATE States of America" specifically hearkens back to that old document which did not work the first time.  They KNEW what they were doing.  Some may claim it was for economic reasons.  However, every state that went into rebellion SPECIFICALLY stated that it was to keep their institution of slavery alive and thriving.  So, in the long run, it was not only treasonous of Lee; it was also for the most immoral and evil reasons possible that he took up arms against the United States of America.  He was lucky that General Grant did not have him summarily executed at Appomattox.
In my opinion, there should be no hero worship of these Southern fighters and their commanders.  Their flags, like the Nazi flags, belong in museums, because they are banners in a call to hate.