Son: Who's that, Dad?
Father: General Robert E. Lee.
Son: Teacher said that statues are for great men, was he a great man?
Father: Many think so.
Son: What did he do?
Father: Remember that Civil War you learned about?
Son: Where our ancestors got their freedom?
Father: Yes, that one. This man fought in it.
Son: So he helped us get our freedom?
Father: No, he wanted us to stay slaves.
Son: I don't understand. He fought against the United States?
Father: Yes. He had been an officer in the U.S. Army, and he turned traitor and betrayed his oath. He helped his home state secede and rebel against the Constitution he had sworn to uphold and defend.
Son: But this is the United States, why is there a statue of him? What did he do that was so great?
Father: His only greatness lies in how well he fought for the right for he and his friends to keep our ancestors in chains. He did nothing else of note besides that.
Son: No inventions, no discoveries?
Father: No.
Son: Maybe it's for how great an officer he was on the side of the U.S.?
Father: No, the only thing he did of note as a U.S. citizen was betray his country.
Son: Then I don't understand. Do we put up statues of all men who betray and fight against our nation?
Father: No, son, just those who fought for the right to own you and I. British, Germans, Iraqis - we erect no statues to the valor of their Generals. Just the Generals who fought and killed to keep us slaves.
Son: Does this mean that America is still racist, like Uncle Jim always says at Thanksgiving?
Father: That's hard to say. On the one hand, most who like these statues would never dream of whipping or owning or discriminating against any of us. They seem to identify the statues, and that Confederate flag you see on bumperstickers, with a "Screw you" to their own government. It makes them feel rebellious and naughty, like maybe they are the freer for being able to do something that the government of the U.S. might not like.
Son: But on the other hand?
Father: The majority who feel that way have overlooked that the racists - the real racists, in the KKK and other white supremacy groups - use the Confederate flag and the Confederate statues as symbols of hope, hope in a day in which you and I and mom will be at the least second class citizens, if not out and out slaves. They overlook that those statues were put up, not in honor of those men's achievements, but to make our people in your granddad's time know our place. This one, for instance, was erected in the nineteen sixties, during the Civil Rights riots.
Son: So these statues are so we know our place?
Father: Regrettably, no matter how ignorant of that many are, or how kind and good they may well be, that is why these statues exist. The statues are not of great philosophers or inventors from this state, or from the United States, but of men who used to whip and beat and rape and kill us, and find it good and Christian to do so.
Son: I'm going to spray paint it tonight!
Father: *sharply* You'll do no such thing! We've more burdens than a stupid statue to overcome. You leave all that to the liberal white college students, they can afford to be arrested, you can't! Your granddad paid taxes to maintain this, I'm paying taxes to maintain this, but hopefully, one day, with enough education, you won't have to pay taxes to maintain this perpetual symbol of our misery.
Son: Okay, Dad. But one way or another, I'll never pay that tax.
Father: Oh, hush, it's almost dinner time. You'll pay it because it's just the property tax and the sales tax that goes to a million things, including this shameful monument. Or are you planning on being homeless and never buying food?
Son: *laughing* No, I guess not! But still...
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