With respect to both those goals, it seems important to declare here once again that I do not believe that any side in our cultural divisions has a monopoly on goodness. As I see it, there are aspects of the true and the good and the beautiful to be found on both sides. In other words, I do not believe in reducing these Bushite supporters to the dark side of them that's recently been elicited by their ill-chosen leadership.
That's where Lee comes in.
My impression, from my limited knowledge of Lee, is that if there's any single figure in history who embodies the best of the Virginia culture, it would be Robert E. Lee. So I decided to study up on Lee to see if he did indeed deserve this image as the ideal Virginian.
If he did prove to be admirable, that would help me to appreciate better the culture in which I am embedded. And if he did prove to be an exemplar, his example might also prove useful in calling my Virginian neighbors to their better selves.
THE OTHER SIDE
Lee, I've now discovered, is indeed an admirable figure. Perhaps there's a bit of Southern hagiography going on in some of what I read, but he seems to have been genuinely a man of admirable character: complete integrity, thoroughly a gentleman, possessed of diverse and considerable gifts, and a man of great heart.
He's also cut from very different cloth from me, a man who is on the other side of many of the cultural lines that dissect American culture.
What best captures that difference for me is the code of conduct that led Robert E. Lee to turn down the offer to command the Union troops, to resign from the U.S. Army, and subsequently to accede to the request that he lead the Army of Virginia for the Confederacy. Lee did not much like slavery, and he opposed secession. Yet, when Virginia decided to secede from the Union, over a conflict at the heart of which was the issue of slavery, he saw himself as bound to Virginia, and required by duty to serve the cause of his state, whether he believed in it or not.
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