Removing the Robert E. Lee statue would dishonor thecountless sacrifices made by Texans during...

Don't mess with Texas.

To quote Michael Phillips - "Some will argue that the memorials, statues, plaques and school names paying tribute to Confederate leaders are "history." But there is a fundamental difference between history and propaganda. History does not have as its primary object glamorization. History is about analysis, context and explaining the origins of ideas, institutions and events. Confederate memorials do none of these things."

Patricia M Patterson made an impassioned argument, "Rather, like hundreds of other monuments across the state, it is a visible reminder of the valor, strength, hope and sacrifice of the Texans who fought in the Civil War." to bad she failed to finish off that sentence with, ...fought in the Civil War against the United States of America." That is something people always leave off. That the confederates fought against the United States and killed US Soldiers all to support a government that supported the ownership of other people.

Also, Lots of Texans grieved for decades after, well maybe they shouldn't have taken up arms against the United States and lets be honest millions of African Americans were also grieving about being SLAVES.

Let's also stop comparing the Founding fathers who owned slaves and the members of the confederacy. Yes they both owned slaves but the comparisons end there. There is a huge difference between a slave owning Washington, Jefferson and other founding fathers and Lee and other confederate. George Washington and Jefferson did not take up arms against the United States. When do we give someone who directed the killing of hundreds of thousands of US soldiers a pass because they were an american before the war. That would be like saying Benedict Arnold should have a base named after him because he was a great American General. Yeah he was up until he turned traitor and fought against what would be come America.

The argument against removing statues and monuments because it could lead to the removal of the civil war form history books is ridiculous. We still talk about the trail of tears and the other Indian removal programs in history books, we talk about slavery and the exploitation of Chinese laborers on railroads, the No Irish Need Apply and the poor treatment of Italians, Germans and Blacks in the early 20th century. We still talk about Nazi Germany. We still talk about the lynching and violence of the civil rights movement. These are all still in the history books and will be forever as that is our history. To say that we need to keep confederate memorials around to ensure we remember history is akin to saying we need to put up a few Klan memorials to remember all the lynchings that occurred in the deep south are remembered.

If Texan's want memorial statues to commemorate their history then put up statues of people who did good things like ADM Chester Nimitz, Audie Murphy, Doris Miller, or many other much more deserving members of the Texas population. Not a group of people who turned against the untied states to justify the continued exist of slavery which had become morally wrong at that point in history.

Take it down and put it in a Civil War museum like it belongs. Hell, even Lee said the Confederate flag should be removed from public usage.