Just behind my favorite leather loveseat hangs an old cherished lithograph of LEE’S SURRENDER AT APP
OMATTOX COURT HOUSE...
I am not a historian, although I love reading History, particularly CIVIL WAR HISTORY...BUT I HAVE GROWN TO APPRECIATE THE VALUE OF ‘SYMBOLS’...’SYMBOLS’, such as statues, flags, and other objects, serve as MERE REMINDERS OF GREATER REALITIES...!!!
For those unfamiliar with CIVIL WAR events, THE BATTLE OF APPOMATTOX COURT HOUSE signified the official end of the CIVIL WAR inasmuch as it was the last battle fought in this bloody infamous event in our nation’s history...
In this great work of art wall hanging, Confederate General Robert E. Lee, himself a graduate of West Point, is sitting humiliatingly watched by UNION GENERAL ULYSSES S. GRANT as General Lee signs the final document of surrender...thus ending forever THE CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA...AND THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR...AND ALL THIS ACTIVITY taking place in the presence of a huge number of witnesses...and in the ‘former’ Confederate stronghold of THE STATE OF VIRGINIA...!!!
I write this not to justify WHITE SUPREMACISTS, NAZISM, FASCISM, or any other ISM...BUT...
TO POINT OUT the real value of HISTORY...NOT REVISIONIST HISTORY, but History that is useful in avoiding events such as THE CIVIL WAR from reoccurring in the future...!!!
To destroy art and symbols that depict and memorialize events of the past, yes, even those as hideous as THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR, is to perhaps destroy HISTORY ITSELF...ALL HUMANS ARE FLAWED, but STILL VALUABLE IN THE SIGHT OF GOD...LET GOD BE THE FINAL JUDGE...!!!
THAT’S how I see it, and that is just one AMERICAN’S VIEW OF RECENT EVENTS that have taken place IN CHARLOTTESVILLE, VIRGINIA...!!!
HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND GIVING THANKS FOR THE GREAT COUNTRY WE CALL AMERICA...!!!
Comments(4)