Virginia elementary school drops Confederate general from name, changes to Obama

[Evil Midnight Bomber]

can you name school after a president who is still in office? i would love my boy to go to Trump school but with him likely staying in the oval for 20+ years i fear he may have to go somewhere else

Trump already had a school with his name on it.

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-...ersity-lawsuit

It didn't end up so well.

[therealbowser]

I'm not tolerant towards the confederacy, I just don't think we should treat confederate soldiers who died as if they were terrorists either. They were our family and our neighbors, and should be shown respect not admiration or equality in which side they were fighting on, just respect.

I've no interest in jumping back into this thread, but this was essentially the point was unsuccessfully trying to put out to begin with. Despite our argument earlier, I think we actually feel similarly about this case. At least in this instance; that is to say I don't feel there is any need to honor the Confederacy whatsoever. But respecting the people that fought and died, and mourning the tragedy that was the Civil War is important.

Just wanted to post this, since I saw some of your other posts on this page and respect your for them. Specifically, I want to apologize if I was rude earlier. I am pretty sure I misread a lot of what you were posting in the frenzy where I was tiptoeing through every response since every word I posted here was being picked apart. Take it as you will!

[buck008]

People should learn from history, not ignore and repeat it.

The point of much of this thread is that you can learn from history without naming schools after people that rebelled against the United States and fought for the right to keep roughly a third of the current population as slaves.

[Grapemask]

Sounds like polarized logic that fails to accept the individuality of the people involved.

Lincoln was quite clear that he was willing to abide by slavery if it restored the union, but I don't see people rushing to tear down his statues.

People should learn from history, not ignore and repeat it.

No matter how many times I see this awful argument, I still can't stop the exasperated sigh.

[Travis B]

The fact that so many people seemingly learn history from statues and names of schools probably explains why those same people have such a warped view of history.

[sarahtasher]

Why not name it the Jefferson Davis ? The first POTUS that ended his term in drag ?



Jefferson Davis ending in dignity his tenure

[Travis B]

Why not name it the Jefferson Davis ? The first POTUS that ended his term in drag ?



Jefferson Davis ending in dignity his tenure

I never knew that before. He's an even bigger coward than I thought he was.

[Noxx79]

Idiots: those liberals are trying to erase history!
Same idiots: why can’t those liberals get over slavery, or genocide of the Indians, or the holocaust, or whatever!?!?

[TexasRules]

Without going off on the side issue of reasons, you don't see a Rommel street anywhere, either, despite him being universally accepted as an upstanding fellow who got caught up in some bad business.

You do see a statue of a communist who killed millions of his own people in Seattle.

- - - Updated - - -

I don't feel the need to recognize the individuality of people who sold blacks as a commodity and regularly brutalized them.

- - - Updated - - -

Also, if it wasn't mainly about slavery, it's so weird how the South instituted the Jim Crow laws to maintain their race based caste system and how law enforcement looked the other way at very public lynchings. Very strange indeed.

Where is your outrage at everything George Washington? Also Milkshake! BOOM!

[Thekri]

Where is your outrage at everything George Washington? Also Milkshake! BOOM!

The problem with this rather pathetic excuse is that it doesn't address the core of what George Washington is famous for in the first place. I am all for taking historical characters in their full historical context, but that doesn't mean glorifying the worst parts of them. George Washington did some absolutely terrible things in regard to slavery and his plantation, and it would be wrong to honor him for it. However I am fine with honoring him for his contributions to the nation as a whole, which was absolutely massive, and can't really be overstated.


On the other hand confederate generals are typically known for nothing else. Take away their fight to destroy the union to preserve slavery, and you have nothing historically noteworthy about these individuals, at least not to the degree that justifies statues and school names. A cause as fundamentally flawed as the confederacy is not redeemable. Even worse, the legacy of the confederacy has been used to provide further control of black southerners for generations, making any homage to the confederacy immediately suspicious. Leave the history of the confederacy in museums, battlefields, and graveyards. It has no place on our schools or in our town centers.

[TexasRules]

On the other hand confederate generals are typically known for nothing else. Take away their fight to destroy the union to preserve slavery, and you have nothing historically noteworthy about these individuals, at least not to the degree that justifies statues and school names. A cause as fundamentally flawed as the confederacy is not redeemable. Even worse, the legacy of the confederacy has been used to provide further control of black southerners for generations, making any homage to the confederacy immediately suspicious. Leave the history of the confederacy in museums, battlefields, and graveyards. It has no place on our schools or in our town centers.

You obviously know nothing about Robert E Lee, much like most Americans. And on the topic of Washington, he was regarded as being notoriously bad to slaves. But hey, let's only pick and choose what we want to look at of what people did. You are assuming that everyone in the confederacy owned slaves or fought for slave ownership, which is simply not true. But why would you consider that?

[Dhrizzle]

You do see a statue of a communist who killed millions of his own people in Seattle.

Millions is pushing it, Lenin may have lead a brutal regime but he was no Stalin or Hitler. Maybe he would have gone that way if he had lived longer, but he managed to die early enough so his excesses didn't overshadow his other achievements.

[Deleted]

The fact that so many people seemingly learn history from statues and names of schools probably explains why those same people have such a warped view of history.

You do know there is almost no one in this tread that disagrees with you right? There are some like my self that don't see why it should be named after Obama seeing he also did horrible things (I personally think he was a great president and with that he had to make very hard decisions, I don't agree with some of them but overall I think hes been pretty damn decent) instead of one of the other examples brought up in this tread.

[Mormolyce]

I'm not tolerant towards the confederacy, I just don't think we should treat confederate soldiers who died as if they were terrorists either. They were our family and our neighbors, and should be shown respect not admiration or equality in which side they were fighting on, just respect.

Confederate soldiers were people - ie the usual mix of great guys, assholes and in between - who were fighting in the service of a terrible cause for a variety of reasons.

Just like terrorists actually.

[Travis B]

You do know there is almost no one in this tread that disagrees with you right? There are some like my self that don't see why it should be named after Obama seeing he also did horrible things (I personally think he was a great president and with that he had to make very hard decisions, I don't agree with some of them but overall I think hes been pretty damn decent) instead of one of the other examples brought up in this tread.

You must not have actually read through the thread, because if you did, you would have seen that the overwhelming majority support taking the Confederate general's name off the school. As for how people feel about it being named after Obama, I couldn't care less about that.

[Deleted]

You must not have actually read through the thread, because if you did, you would have seen that the overwhelming majority support taking the Confederate general's name off the school. As for how people feel about it being named after Obama, I couldn't care less about that.

Thats what I said. Most people agree with you?
Im confused..

[Travis B]

Thats what I said. Most people agree with you?
Im confused..

Oops, my bad, I read your post wrong. My apologies.

[Deleted]

Slowly but surely history is being erased, won't be surprised to see the US flag get changed because reasons..

To be fair, this flag doesn't makes you americans look very interested in women, if you get what I mean

[Argarock]

So by this logic we shouldn't celebrate any of these Presidents then?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...o_owned_slaves

why would you celebrate presidents in the first place?

[Mormolyce]

So by this logic we shouldn't celebrate any of these Presidents then?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...o_owned_slaves

You should certainly hold them to account for being slave owners, yes.

But you know, they didn't start a war that got something like a million of their countrymen killed in a failed attempt to retain them.