printWas on The Schilling Show, which is radio out of Charlottesville, to talk about our hero, Robert E. Lee. He and John Randolph of Roanoke compete in my heart.
The charming host, Rob, sprung on me something for which I was unprepared: “What would you tell Mayor Mike Signer, if he were listening and we know he does.” I should have humbly/politely declined, but this came out:
“Go back to Berkeley and Princeton, you carpetbagger.”
A thought on Confederate soldiers as heroes in the mold of any American military hero:
The mantra that brooks no challenging is, “Our Military Men and Women” uber alles. But not all American veterans are created equal. Therefore, are confederate soldiers truly honored by being considered as good as any other American soldier, by being welcomed belatedly and grudgingly into the military pantheon? For the War Against Northern Aggression was a just war. The other wars fought by the US, except for the Revolutionary War, not so much. unjust.
In any event, many of the military veterans I hear or see on TV contradict the values for which Lee stood. Lee fought for the locality, they fight for the Empire.
On the other hand, Confederate soldiers by default are heroes and patriots. Whereas American military veterans currently have performed feats of heroism in saving their buddies; their cause is mostly unjust: unjust wars. For if a soldier is not conscripted yet volunteers to fight the Empire’s unjust wars; is that heroic? If he fights to defend his family, community, town, kin; a soldier or any man is my hero.
But that’s the reactionary libertarian, the reincarnated Southern agrarian, the Articles-of-Confederation devotee speaking.