America is not one nation.
It’s more like an ever-simmering cauldron of local and regional allegiances and grudges — social, moral, political, geographical and financial.
And good luck to any man — whether a president, a preacher, a restaurateur or a pop singer — who would dare try to keep everybody happy for more than five minutes at a time.
It’s interesting, if not always pleasant, when two opposing niches of America rub up against each other. There’s always a chance that a scuffle will break out, like when two captive rhinos shoulder toward the same food trough.
Other times, the factions pass in the night, with barely more than a raised eyebrow on either side: So that’s what happens on the other side of the fence.
I’m guessing that’s what happened in this week’s calendar entry, which features an event my grandfather never celebrated.
January 18 and 19, 1974. Apropos de nada, that’s a pretty radical temperature shift over 24 hours.
How do I know my grandpa never celebrated Robert E. Lee’s birthday?
He wasn’t a Southerner by birth, residence or self-proclamation. In ninety-plus years of life, it’s likely that he never crossed the Mason-Dixon line. Like Gil Scott-Heron’s old Uncle Henry, he was never known to board an airplane, either.
Compared to my grandpa, I am positively worldly, having savored boiled peanuts in Charleston, red beans and rice in New Orleans, tacos in San Antonio, and Piggly Wiggly house-brand soda in Savannah.
That said, I had no idea people celebrated Robert E. Lee’s birthday in a widespread fashion, and I was surprised to see it come pre-printed on a wall calendar. It’s not on any of the ones in my house, I’m sure of that.
According to Wiki, no fewer than seven Southern states mark the Confederate military leader’s birthday.
Three of them commemorate it on the same day as Martin Luther King Jr. Day. That strikes me as the sort of folly that future generations will find risible, like duck-and-cover drills or witch trials. (Does any other country produce queasy retroactive laughs quite like America?)
I suppose you could argue that every state should embrace Robert E. Lee Day, though, because the old general was pretty much America on a horse.
By all accounts, he was a gentleman of intelligence, grace, piety and humility, not to mention a strong military leader.
And yet, the inescapable bottom line is that he put all of these qualities to work in support of a brutal and inhuman social system. He flew the flag for home, honor — and the right of one human being to buy and sell another.
The collision of the righteous and the venal, the lofty and the self-serving, the honorable and the crabbed, the pure and the fouled … is that not America?
Perhaps it is not American nature but human nature that is so bitterly divided. Still, the story of Robert E. Lee makes me picture a country that can see the right things to do, but cannot bring itself to commit to them. That’s what I see in the mirror, and in the headlines, and in the sky on the Fourth of July.
I am not sure what my grandpa did when he got frustrated with his country — as he surely did, being a thoughtful man in a turbulent time. Perhaps he went to bed, and hoped the freezing rain and glare ice would melt away in the morning.
That sounds pretty good.
Happy belated Robert E. Lee Day.
Brilliant thinking and writing, even more than usual. Everyone knows the many specifics of what you’re talking about without your even mentioning them. Your taking two words and a letter and writing this fabulous, deep piece is like a composer taking a 3-note theme and writing a symphony.
The only tie-in you didn’t make was to today’s events in the capital, in which those of us who have any hope left hope that the man raising his right hand and his cohorts can somehow make their divisions less in the next 4 years, which would certainly set a great example for the rest of the country. They are, after all, supposed to be leaders.
I dunno as it was that great, but thank you.
I wrote it during the run-up to the fiscal cliff (the one that our leaders, in their immense leadership, were barely able to stave off for a few months) so that’s sorta where it came from.
How beautiful and thoughtful. After going to sleep with what I read last night, this is just what I needed. Reflection, empathy, honesty – it seems to me that if we have more of this, we will have less of those unthinkable things happening. So, this is today’s source of light and a wonderful way to start the king celebration. Thank you for writing.
It is kind of you to find light in this week’s post — I thought it was kind of grumbly, myself. I am glad that you find hope in it … I guess I am not devoid of hope either, even if it doesn’t always show itself.
Growing up in Northern Virginia, I was vaguely aware that Lee-Jackson Day was a state holiday, although no one celebrated it and schools were open. There was then a period when it became Lee-Jackson-King Day, but I think that they changed it.
Somewhere in Virginia there was a guy named Lee Jackson King who was more than grateful for an excuse to get sloshed once a year.
Although I would like to see Lee’s birthday expunged simply because of its implications, I also feel it necessary to point out that Lee was born on 19 January, and if one is to celebrate a displaced holiday, then Dr. King’s birthday is the only place to put it. And, Lee’s was celebrated long before King’s hit the calendar.
Can’t argue the first point. If you’re going to celebrate Robert E. Lee, his birthday is his birthday, and you can’t change that.
On the second point, I would say that the contributions of King (and the movement he stood for) dwarf the contributions of Lee and the movement he stood for; and that society should change to reflect that, including holiday declarations.
But that’s just my opinion; the people of seven states would disagree with me there.
It has taken a while, but it’s about time Robert E. Lee lost the Civil War. The South, of course, was defeated on the battlefield in 1865, yet the Lee legend — swaddled in myth, kitsch and racism — has endured even past the civil rights era when it became both urgent and right to finally tell the “Lost Cause” to get lost.