Tilting at Confederate Windmills
In May of this year, a friend wrote: Now that Robert E. Lee, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington are out of favor, I assume we'll have to drop Memorial Day too. People interested in bringing about real equality in American society should not be tilting at Confederate windmills. They should be working to make the present situation better. After warning him that I had plenty to say in reply, and briefly worrying that perhaps I'd inferred too much from what I took to be his position (and trusting that he would take the time to clarify where I may have overstepped), I jumped in. -- -- "Friend, I have no quibble with your believing that Robert E. Lee is out of favor, as well he should be for taking such a prominent role in defending slavery. But do you actually believe that Jefferson and Washington are also no longer as accepted? Perhaps because their being slaveholders is more widely acknowledged than it once was? "I know the current occupant of the White Hous