Return the Flags, Sir

On Tuesday, July 8, 2014, the president of Washington & Lee University capitulated to a band of anti-white, anti-Southern professional race-baiters who branded themselves "The Committee" and decided to have the symbols of our Southern heritage removed from the hallowed ground on which General Robert E. Lee has been interred.  The flags of our ancestors have festooned his final resting place for generations uncontested - until recently when a group of BLACK pre-law students decided that his memory, his honour and heritage, is offensive to them.

I wrote Mr. Kenneth Ruscio a letter explaining my opinion on the matter and how his decision to accommodate ONLY the oblivious and deceptive opinions of a few rabble-rousers was unconscionable and only served to tarnish the legacy of the late General, as well as that of our first President, General George Washington.

Below please find the full text of my letter, followed by the school's "reply" which amounts to nothing short of an insult by its brevity and lack of meaningful substance.  To wit:

Mr. Ruscio:

I am sure you have been beset by any number of individuals and groups regarding this "controversial" issue.  I, like many of my fellow Virginians are disappointed, ashamed, even outraged by your capitulation to a group of negro pre-law students calling themselves "The Committee" who presented that the presence of the flags of my ancestors amounted to an insult.  As is often the case with issues of this nature, only the side of the disenfranchised has been rationally explored.

I can tell you with some clarity and conviction that few, if any of the more than two dozen of my Virginia ancestors, tracing back to 1720 and earlier, owned any slaves, yet they fought with honour for the Commonwealth against the federal invasion.  Many of them lost their lives or livelihoods defending the state which I call home.

Perhaps that doesn't mean anything to you.  I do not know where you are from, but men much wiser than you or myself consider both General Washington (with whom my ancestors also fought) and General Lee are and always have been held in the highest regard as honest and honourable men.  Washington owned slaves.  Lee did not.  It is imperative if we are to survive as a people that men such as yourself resist the socio-political correctness of these always complaining people.  You have given them now their inch and I expect you will see them have a go at the mile in due time.

To remove the flags of our fathers from the FINAL RESTING PLACE of the revered commander of our armies is a disgrace to his memory and that of hundreds of thousands who promised everything they had to prevent this country from falling to the regime of Lincoln.  Make no mistake, sir.  I do not believe we are better off as a union, but that is a discussion for another time and venue.  This discussion is about my heritage, my legacy, and the heritage and legacy of thousands of others just like me all over Virginia and the South.  We believe in what these symbols stood for, and slavery is nowhere on that list.  So a bunch of self-righteous, professional victims believe the flags of the South represent slavery.  So what?  Slavery existed for hundreds of years prior to that on this continent and it still exists in one form or another on the continent many of the complainers claim as their "homeland".

I would certainly suggest that if they suggest their lives would be enriched by a country whose own heritage is erased and replaced with theirs, they should travel to Zimbabwe or Niger or Chad and report back to us on how "bad" things are here in Virginia.

What you have done, Mr. Ruscio, is thumbed your nose at every patriot who fought under those flags.  You have extended not an olive branch, but your middle finger to the wives who wept and the sons who died for them.  Slavery?  Do you honestly think the average infantry or cavalryman riding with Lee and Jackson owned slaves?  They did not.  That is documented in numerous census both before and after the war.

I suggest that the flags be returned to their place of honour and you instead instruct those misinformed youth of the folly of their ways.  Perhaps they could choose another, more suitable venue to continue their educations?  I would recommend Norfolk State or Hampton University, where their racially-motivated hatred towards Southerners and Southern symbols would be more appropriately welcomed.

Furthermore, the Lee Chapel is a burial ground.  What right do you - does ANYONE - have to remove items from it?  Numerous acts of Congress passed between 1900 and 1958 establish equal rights and recognition of service, as well as ordain that it be unlawful to disturb or vandalize a gravesite.  I would argue that this falls into that category and by removing these flags against the wishes of the family and COMPATRIOTS of Mr. Lee, you have disturbed and vandalized his final rest.

Return the flags, sir.  Do the right thing.

Kindest regards,
Xxxxxx X. Xxx
Virginia Beach, VA

Their response?

Mr. Xxx,
Thank you for your email and interest in Washington and Lee.

I want to make sure you have had the opportunity to read the history of the flags in Lee Chapel located at:

http://www.wlu.edu/lee-chapel-and-museum/about-the-chapel/history-of-lee-chapel-flags

Take care,

Elizabeth Knapp
Senior Assistant to the President
Director of the Johnson Program
Professor of Geology
Washington and Lee University

I highly recommend that ANYONE who cares even a little about their heritage or who has ANY hope for a chance at a future for our people to stand up to these petty instigators.  They have been given their token inch and I suspect they will use it to go next for a mile.