What did R.E. Lee ever do for Arkansas?

Why does Arkansas celebrate Robert E. Lee with a state holiday?

Why do they celebrate a guy who became the face of a group of rebel states that seceded because its wealthiest residents were afraid they'd have to set their slaves free?

Why do they celebrate him on the same day as a man who made a positive difference on the country as a whole?

That's the sort of things I wonder when we honor Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert E. Lee on the same day in Arkansas. Two contradicting characters: King lead the way forward for not only black equality, but that of other disenfranchised people too, becoming not only an American figure, but also a world one. Lee married into a rich slave owning family and fought for states who sought to keep the institution of black slavery and when the war was lost, he lent his voice to those who sought to keep blacks from voting.

It seems that it makes sense why one is honored nationally and the other is honored by only five states: Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Florida. All of those, except Georgia, celebrate him on Martin Luther King Day. In Lee's own home state, Virginia, he is honored on the Friday before Martin Luther King Jr. Day with Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson, another Confederate general.

So why is he honored? He didn't really do anything for Arkansas, except have its able-bodied men shipped eastward to fight in Virginia. The Confederacy as a whole seemed to treat Arkansas as just a jumping point into Missouri, which it considered a prize. After it was obvious that they would never take Missouri, Arkansas was pretty much left abandoned, with invading Union forces taking most of the state with little effort. By the end of the war, Confederate Arkansas was pretty much reduced to the southwest corner of the state. By the time it was over, 10,000 Arkansans — Union, Confederate and civilian — had lost their lives.

Arkansan soldiers returned to a state that had been prosperous in the late 1850s reduced to a husk of its former self due to the war. Many of them lost everything and they went through many years of rebuilding what they had lost. In some scholars' opinions, Arkansas, like much of the south, never fully recovered from the Civil War.

Lee on the other hand returned to a largely comfortable life in Virginia, eventually becoming the president of Washington College in Lexington, Virginia, from 1865 to 1870. During that time Lee, along with other prominent Southerners, signed an Aug. 26, 1868, letter to Gen. William Rosecrans that opposed allowing blacks the right to vote following the Civil War.

On the other hand, almost 100 years later, King led a 1965 march from Selma, Alabama, to the Capitol in Montgomery to advocate for equal voting rights.

Now, I've heard the argument “well, if they (by “they” it's meant black people) get Martin Luther King Jr. Day then we (“we” being white people) should get Robert E. Lee Day.” That argument misses the point of honoring King. Throughout most of the country, as well as the world, King is not regarded as someone who only did things for black people. He's regarded as someone who transformed the status quo, not only helping black people on the way toward equality, but also helping change how whites see themselves in relation to minorities in the US.

Lee did none of that. Lee is seen by many as a southern icon, but in reality, the South was, and still is, more than the Confederacy. Many southerners, including Arkansans, fought and died to preserve the Union. Reducing the South to the Confederacy does it a great disservice, as it narrows what a Southerner is down to a government that existed only four years and ties that identity eternally to slavery.

Some will argue that those who don't think there should be a Robert E. Lee Day in Arkansas, especially on the same day as Martin Luther King Jr. Day, are somehow trying to destroy their heritage. I don't see that as the case as the descendant of a Confederate soldier myself, and believe that there's a difference between remembering our ancestors and honoring a government that most of us would consider reprehensible today. We can remember acts of bravery from soldiers on both sides without having to elevate the government they fought for or try to justify the atrocities they committed. Not honoring the Confederacy will not take away from any of that.

So maybe, today will be the last time we will celebrate the two days together. But, I kind of doubt it.  

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America has always been a mixed bag

By Joseph Price

Some Americans didn't have the "good old days."

Who knew a hat could cause so much outrage?

A couple of weeks ago, a Home Depot employee in New York found out.

Krystal Lake of Staten Island, New York, decided to wear a personalized hat stating “America was never great” to her job.
As expected, this lead to someone taking a snapshot of her in said hat and sharing it on social media. 
This eventually led her employer to disavow the hat, as well as any other politically-themed clothing or accessories that employees might be wearing. According to Home Depot, some sort of action was taken and as of now, I'm not sure of her job status.

Now, the logical conclusion is that would be the end of it. But of course, it never is.

As soon as the photos went up, there was the typical knee-jerk reaction from outraged people on Facebook, Twitter and other social media ranging from demanding her firing to, according to Lake at least, death threats.

Lake told the Staten Island Advance that she had the hat made as a reaction to Donald Trump's slogan “Make America Great Again.”

"The point of the hat was to say America needs changing and improvement," Lake told the Advance. "I don't think it's a positive message to say, "'Let's look to the past.'"

Of course, this triggered the usual knee-jerk reaction of “if you don't like it, get out” and “do you want to live in Africa instead?”

But is that reaction really the right one?

Whether something is great or not is a pretty subjective thing. This is especially true of past events.

There's a lot of things people can point to in our collective past or present and say America is great. We've had times of great economic growth and have been the world's largest economy. We've had, and still have, one of the world's strongest military forces. Despite all the fear of government surveillance and confidentiality, our press is among the freest and our privacy is largely respected. Even as far as governments go, we've still got one of the least corrupt and most transparent. Those are all things people could call “great.”

On the other hand, we need to ask if things have been “great” for people who aren't white and male.

Disclaimer: I happen to be white and male.

Now this is where a lot of people begin to get pretty defensive. A lot of people react as if looking at America through the experiences of people who had hardships because of their race or gender is somehow going to invalidate everything about the country that they've held dear. Others view it as a personal insult to those that served in the military, past and present.

But seriously, how is saying “yeah, it's been rough for black people, American Indians and women” an insult to anyone?

I often hear the statement “American blacks should be glad they're not in Africa” as a response to pretty much anyone who brings up some of the country's sordid history in regards to black people. Honestly, I find that to be an irrelevant point because black people in America are not comparing their status to Africans, they're comparing it to other Americans. After all, their collective experience has been in America, not Africa. Are we supposed to dismiss the tricky past of chattel slavery, segregation and lynchings when it comes to looking back at America's past? Is it really that offensive to ask “has America been good to black people?”

It's a similar story for Native Americans who saw themselves evicted from their lands in the Eastern states during the first half of the 1800s, then confined to ever-shrinking reservations from that point on. Not only that, but they also faced forced assimilation, which saw many of their customs and languages die out. Again, is it really out of line to ask “has America been great for American Indians?”

And finally, there is the experience for American women, who were not allowed to vote until 1920. But even after that, the law was used to keep women in the home and out of the workplace. It also made it hard for women to escape abusive men, often leaving those who sought escape little legal recourse. Child support itself was, and still is, often treated as a joke.

Of course, there are other groups of Americans that could be mentioned. They all have different experiences and all vary in levels of “greatness.”

Now of course, this is not a defense of Lake wearing the hat. She claims that her co-workers were wearing pro-Trump accessories, but I've yet to see any evidence of that. As far as I'm concerned, I'm going to Home Depot to buy nuts and bolts, not get a history lesson or be bombarded by campaign slogans.

But, I don't think the hat should spark the amount of outrage it has. Honestly, if you believe that acknowledging that some groups of people have had historically negative experiences in America is either an insult or is somehow going to destroy America, then you probably need to take a moment and breathe. Getting outraged isn't going to make your case any stronger.

Instead of being outraged, it may be more conductive to ask “why do you think that?”