LEE'S FLAGS

[John M. Brooke]

[Lamar]

Here's a good response to the W&L's president's asinine actions...

http://tinyurl.com/ojajbg7

[John M. Brooke]

I truly believe the flag stands for the homes, families, and towns the soldiers fought so hard to defend. The vast majority of soldiers that served in the Confederate Army didn't own any slaves. They for sure didn't fight and die to keep slaves they didn't have. I don't care what the history books in our "politically correct" schools teach. My ancestor died leading the Stonewall Brigade at Second Manassas picking up the flag of the 33rd Virginia in an attempt to rally his troops. He literally died for this flag! W&L taking the flag down is a disrespect to all the ancestors of the troops that died defending its true meaning.

[CarlS]

Interesting history on the flags at Washington & Lee:
     http://www.wlu.edu/lee-chapel-and-museum/about-the-chapel/history-of-lee-chapel-flags

[emike123]

Yes, but where will they display these flags when they ever get around to doing so?  Probably in some limited access closet open 2 hours a month.

I went to Duke.  Well after I had graduated, our President screwed over an entire group of students (& their coach) who happened to be on our Varsity Lacrosse team when the Durham Assistant DA trumped up charges that were based on perjury and later got him disbarred.  It was fairly obvious at the time that the witness had no credibility and yet the "Duke family" we hear about in fundraising requests bailed out on these kids led by our politically sensitized President.  When the truth finally and irrefutably came to light over the ensuing years, most of the affected "guilty until proven innocent" kids had already graduated mostly from other schools they had been forced to transfer to, like Rutgers, but our benevolent President offered to kindly reinstate them in a ludicrous face saving failure of a gesture.  So for 5 years, several hundred of us who previously gave the university 4/5+ figure annual donations, gave instead $1 a year.  It did not make a difference to a school that hoovers up millions each day in donations, but it had a price tag and was symbolic.  And the year after Lacrosse was reinstated at Duke, the Lacrosse team won the NCAA Championship and I am sure President Brodie was rooting hard for our opponent (Notre Dame) in that game. A couple of the players from the original hosed over group had stuck around (there aren't many scholarships for LAX so these were just regular student athletes) and were still on the team.  Sometimes there is justice in this world even when dealing with all powerful University presidents.

The point of all this is I think W&L benefactors need to consider their options and vote on this with their wallets.  If they are supportive of this action, send the school millions.  If not, send their money to Duke...

[Lamar]

I remember when the originals were on display. I also remember when Traveler's skeleton was on display. (The school finally buried Traveler's bones right outside the lower level's door.)

A few more facts about those flags...

Two inebriated men decided to steal one of the flags. They managed to get outside, but they didn't get far.

The school gave one of the flags to either Tennessee or Kentucky some years ago. As Carl's article states, the flags didn't belong to the school - they belonged to The Museum of the Confederacy. I assume (but don't know) that the flag was returned.

I had heard that the school decided that the display of the flags would be more aesthetically pleasing if the (original) staffs were a uniform length - so it cut them down to size. A few years ago, I was in the flag room in the bowels of The Museum of the Confederacy, and asked one of the curators if that was a true story. He didn't say a word, but a very painful look crossed his face, and he stepped over to some long, skinny drawers where flagstaffs are stored, opened it, and pointed to a group of staffs that had been cut to the same length. I could tell it was a sore subject.

To try to answer Mike's question - the basement of the Lee Chapel contains a mausoleum where a number of the Lees are buried, Lee's office (as it looked that the time of his death), a gift shop, and a nice little museum. I'm sure the token exhibit flag (in it's "proper educational context", with apologies being issued right and left for those who might be offended, as well as a dose of apologies for slavery) will be in the museum.

For those who haven't been to Lexington - Stonewall Jackson's house can be toured, and Virginia Military Institute has a nice little museum (and a few artillery pieces on the parade grounds).