It makes my brain hurt to think about all the Really Important Issues that were not being acted upon across the fruited plain when State and City Governments (and ESPN) were spending so much of their time wrestling with Confederate Statues.
Let’s talk about Robert E. Lee and why he was not nice…
Ø Robert E. Lee commanded the Army of Northern Virginia during our Civil War.
Ø Robert E. Lee was an important figure is a movement to withdraw the Confederate States of America from the United States of America.
Ø If Robert E. Lee and the South had won the Civil War, Slavery would have continued in the Confederate States of America for a time.
Ø Slavery was not nice.
Ø Therefore Robert E. Lee was not nice.
Bottom line…Remove all Statues of Robert E. Lee.
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What started all this consternation was the removal of 4 Confederate Statues in New Orleans, LA. The most famous of these monuments was the Statue of Robert E. Lee in Lee Circle. The statue has been there since 1884. That’s a total of 133 years. For the most part it has been ignored for about 125 of those 133 years.
Could it be that our Politically Correct Decision Makers are too Single Issue Oriented? Before making final Removal Decisions all aspects of the Offending Statue ought to be taken into consideration. Blue Ribbon Committees ought to be appointed to make up a list of Good and Bad Things that the Offending Statue did to justify its designation as an Offending Statue.
If the list ends up with one more good thing than bad thing, the statue should stay. If the list comes up with one more bad thing than good thing, the statue should go.
Good Things Done by Robert E. Lee’s Statue…
Ø Robert E. Lee saw a bunch of bullies taunting a person with a space between his front teeth for having a space between his front teeth and he shouted at the bullies, “Stop That!”.
Ø He once helped a little old lady across street
Ø He was heard whistling Yankee Doodle Dandy while playing Croquet.
Bad Things Done by Robert E. Lee’s Statue …
Ø He dipped Emma Lou Culpepper’s pig tail in his ink well in the second grade.
Ø He called a returning Vietnam War Veteran a Baby Killer.
The actual list would be much longer but I feel this illustrates my point very nicely. You certainly have noted that there is One More Good Thing on these lists than there are Bad Things on these lists, therefore, His Statue Is Not An Offending Statue and It Should Remain where the pigeons can find it.
Most of us (I have long since stopped saying “All of us” because that is modern-day impossible) can see how monumentally unfair it would have been to take down his statue only because of what he did to Emma Lou’s Pigtail.
No one could possibly argue with this logic… Or could they?
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Since this horse is not dead, I’m going to stay on it a little longer.
ESPN removed an Asian Football Announcer from the broadcast of the William and Mary at University of Virginia college football game because his name was Robert Lee.
This thorny issue is addressed very nicely in an article at the following link… https://www.outkickthecoverage.com/msespn-pulls-asian-announcer-named-robert-lee-off-uva-game-avoid-offending-idiots/
My favorite part of the article is the words above the picture of this Offending Robert and his Co-Announcer (What you did not see the picture. That’s not my fault. I told you to read the article.)…
“But just to make it clear for everyone out there, the Asian man on the right is not long deceased Confederate General Robert E. Lee. He’s a different person entirely, one that is still alive and did not fight in the Civil War”.
That ought to do it… Or will it?
My honest opinion is this Offending Robert ought to have been banned from the broadcast because of his haircut (What you did not see the haircut? That’s not my fault. I told you to read the article.).
Would I kid u?
Smartfella
Lagniappe: In order to err on the side of caution and in an attempt to prevent this type of controversy in the future, I think we ought to ban the immigration of all Asians with the last name “Lee”. No one could possibly argue with this logic…Or could they?
Lagniappe More: I have too many “Or’s” in this Blog Posting… Or do I?
