Recently Washington & Lee University President Ken Ruscio announced the university would remove the eight regimental Confederate Battleflags surrounding the famed recumbent statue of Robert E. Lee in Lee Chapel. The statue chamber and the Lee family crypt were built onto Lee Chapel as the site chosen for the Robert E. Lee Memorial using private donations raised for the purpose. As such the university accepted the responsibility to ensure that Lee's burial place would be given the proper respect it deserves and it did so for well over one hundred years.
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| Recumbent Statue of Robert E. Lee in Lee Memorial Chapel at Washington & Lee University. The flags were recently removed by the university. (Photographs in the Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.) |
Sadly, the once proud Southern school has become infiltrated more and more with radical ideology and the academics running the school no longer share the same values as Robert E. Lee. Instead many overtly and openly proclaim disdain for him. When Lee's character was recently attacked, the school offered no response and instead has caved to the demands of a small group of student's who want Lee and everything he stood for repudiated.
For now they have won their fight to remove these flags, but they or others like them will continue their crusade with revolutionary fever to destroy Lee's image in its entirety. The current president, the successor to Robert E. Lee, has now become the nations most notorious grave robber. These radical students undoubtedly dream of the day that sledge hammers will be taken to Lee's recumbent statue just as the mob in Iraq recently did to the grave of the famed Prophet Jonah.
How should decent people react to the cowardly violation of the memorial for an American Icon? Are we so ignorant to believe that people cannot understand why Confederate flags would be at a deceased general's or veteran's grave? Why has this happened and what can be done about it? The Stonewall Brigade Camp 1296 is putting together an event where these issues will be addressed.
This event will be held on July 26 at an open community meeting to be held at the Holiday Inn Express on N. Lee Highway at 4 pm that day featuring Dr. Marshall DeRosa, Professor of Political Science at Florida Atlantic University. He will present "The Heroical Robert E. Lee: Under Attack by the Useful Idiots of the Ruling Class." Following Dr. DeRosa's presentation attendees will be invited to express their concerns and to offer ideas and solutions to the matter.
In addition we will hold a Flag Vigil against this cowardly act in downtown Lexington throughout the day and are working to secure a sight near Lee Chapel to hold a rally beginning at Noon. We encourage anyone concerned about this issue to attend and bring your flags and signs in hand to protest what we consider no less than grave robbery as defined under law by the current president of Washington & Lee.
We ask that everyone remember that although we have the right to be angry at this situation, everyone should conduct themselves in a manner that would not further embarrass the memory of Robert E. Lee. We do not need to stoop down to the level of those who started this travesty. The city sidewalks will be accessible to us, but expect W&L security to remove or arrest anyone entering the campus with a sign or flag.
What else can you do? Write, call, and email the university using the contact information listed below. Secondly, if you know any W&L alumni or donors let us know who they are so that we can encourage them to contact the school and consider withholding further support. Thirdly, attend the flag rally and forum if you can. Fourthly, consider contributing to the various heritage defense funds for this purpose.
Contact Information:
President: Dr. Kenneth Ruscio, Washington and Lee University, 204 West Washington Street Lexington,Virginia 24450. (540) 458-8700 president@wlu.edu
Provost: Dr. Daniel Wubah Washington and Lee University, Washington Hall 214 Lexington,Virginia 24450. (540) 458-8418 dwubah@wlu.edu
BOARD OF TRUSTEES:
Secretary of the University: James D. Farrar, Jr. Washington & Lee University, 203 Washington Hall Lexington,VA 24450. (540) 458-8465 jdfarrar@wlu.edu
Executive Assistant to the Board of Trustees: Katherine Brinkley Washington & Lee University, 202 Washington Hall Lexington,VA 24450. (540) 458-8417 kbrinkley@wlu.edu
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