IS THE ATTACK ON LEE ULTIMATELY AN ATTACK ON AMERICA?
Many Americans have stood on the sidelines as monuments and memorials to heroes of the Confederacy have been toppled by force and removed under the auspices of civil authorities.
The facts in Lee County, Florida indicate the attacks on the monument to Robert E. Lee was more about distain for America than about Lee himself or his military service.
Guardians researched the history of the now missing memorial and what we found was a rich tapestry of American history spanning a 173 year history which began when Robert Edward Lee, US Army Corps of Engineers, surveyed the Florida coast. The name of the City of Fort Myers itself was based upon it, as well as the naming of the County.
In 2022, the City of Fort Myers used its civil authority to 'cancel' its own history to remove a memorial Lee, the result of a 52 year community effort. The story is one of community service and teamwork while overcoming adversity...of pubic-private partnerships and of determined women uniting to aide their community.
This action should be a wake up call to Americans that their culture and civilization is being hauled away while they sleep.
What happens with this memorial - and arguable others - could be an indicator of how, and if, America, herself, will survive.
It saddens us that forces in our great nation wish to tear down - not learn from and advance - this great American experiment. It is gut-wrenching to discover that a long-term community project supported by so many for so long could be destroyed in a relative blink of an eye triggered by an unfortunate death in a far away locale.
We refute the argument that pieces and parts of America...should be destroyed because of connections to 'slavery'. The entire world was complicit in the economic institution of slavery. Jews, Christians, Muslims of all colors over the centuries have been enslaved. And as far as we know, the economic institution of slavery has not existed in America for more than a century and a half.
Our nation's future and our history are too precious for us to remain apathetic. It is time - arguably past time - to push back against the destruction of the people's precious cultural heritage. Read the Guardians Report "A Factual History of the Lee County Namesake Memorial" here.