Uh, There Goes the Robert E. Lee

 ROBERT E. LEE high school in Jacksonville, FLA, might, in the fairly near future, become "Riverside" high school, in a move designed to replace controversy with calm. At least African-american student has complained that each day as she walks down the halls, she must endure the portrait of a man who contributed to the enslavement of her ancestors, a seemingly valid point of view. she is not alone in her discomfort. the comlalint is the usual one, oft heard nowadays; political correctness, which is not always a bad thing, is a gathering storm the intent of which is to bring to a full stop the tradition of much of America to honor the leaders of the former Confederate States of America. The veneration of confederate leaders as worthy of memorializing is often, defensively and dishonestly, portrayed as a mere process of historical preservation. More accurately and honestly, it is a process of immortalization of heroes, heroes whose immoritalization serves the hidden but obvious purpose of expressing modern racism. We do not build statues of, hang portraits of, name streets and towns after people, and the values of people, we do not greatly admire. The veneration of confederate leaders derives from a long perpetuated historical misconception. In deference to the former confederate states which before the Civil War enjoyed a disproportionate share of power in the U.S. government, and whose eventual cooperation was necessary to reconstruct the union after their military defeat, the historical misconception has been allowed to endure and flourish. The historical misconception is that the civil war was an internal struggle between equals, which unfortunately necessitated a violent resolution. More accurately, nearly half the country abandoned its country over the irreconcilable issue of slavery,  formed its own country, then proceeded to attack  and made war, as a foreign adversary, against its former country. Thsi is not a struggle of equals; but rather, traitorous treason and foreign aggression. The false narrative has served to simultaneously assuage the sensitivities of northern reconstructionists, and stubborn southern stalwarts. revisionist history accomplishes such things. In order to preserve historical heritage and to remember history, books are necessary,, but not monuments or statues. It may well be that confederates leaders should be memorialized in statues and monuments, but not in the United States of America.