Dear Otus,
I'm all confused as to how we're supposed to celebrate the King/Lee holiday this year. I know state employees took off last Monday to celebrate King, but what about those who want to celebrate Lee?
-- Bobby Crawford Hanson,
Paron
Dear Bobby,
It was wholly a pleasure to hear from you and to reassure you that you are not the only one confused as to when to celebrate the life of Gen. Robert E. Lee, the greatest military leader and role model this country has ever produced.
Except for, some point out, the owning slaves part and the leading a sanguinary four-year civil war that killed 650,000 fellow citizens and would have bifurcated the United States. But to judge Lee on those aspects would be to apply pesky 21st-century sensibilities and mores to 19th-century reality. We'll just overlook those inconsistencies.
Up until last year, the state of Arkansas -- along with Mississippi and Alabama -- kept it simple. The holiday to honor Lee and the holiday to honor the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. were held on the same day -- the third Monday of January.
Those federal and state employees who were offended about having to celebrate Lee, could simply say they were taking the holiday off to honor King. And vice versa.
Arkansas had set aside a holiday for Lee in 1947, and in 1983 the United States Congress proclaimed Jan. 15 to be a national holiday in honor of King. In 1985 Arkansas combined the observance of the two men into one day.
That is the same, seemingly flawless, expedient thinking that in 2001 made the third Monday in February "George Washington's Birthday and Daisy Gatson Bates Day" an official state holiday in Arkansas.
Washington/Bates Day, we note, also honors a civil rights icon and a slave-owning general from Virginia.
To mollify the unmollified, for the dual King/Lee holiday, state employees were given off from 8 a.m. until noon for King, and 1 to 5 p.m. for Lee. It was a convenient two-for-one dual holiday that still irked many from both sides, according to historian Comer Vann of the Southern Poverty Legal Center.
"Racists, bigots and unreconstructed Southrons were peeved they had to share their beloved Lee holiday with Dr. King," Vann said. "And the NAACP, NUL, NAN, AAPC, and NBWJI where angry about sharing their hard-won King holiday with "Marse Robert," the genteel symbol of white paternalism and the plantation society.
That was all taken care of last March 21 when Gov. Asa Hutchinson signed a bill that removed Lee from the dual holiday and shipped him off to a memorial day on the second Saturday in October. This is closer to the anniversary of his death (Oct. 12) in 1870.
Although Arkansas has had a holiday for Lee since 1947, it was the easier solution to separate Lee, because the federal holiday wasn't going to change.
You would have thought the separation would please all sides, but some folks, such as the Sons of Confederate Veterans Redwood Original, groused that Lee has been reduced to second class status with a mere "memorial day" instead of an actual holiday.
It won't seem like second class this October because plans for a huge parade are already well underway.
Friday was the anniversary of Lee's birthday in 1807. Had he lived, he would have turned 211. Sadly, the gallant general left us all too early in 1870. He was only 63.
That fact, plus many others, will be included in the "Heritage Not Hate" parade Oct. 13 in Little Rock. Lee will be in good company that day.
Oct. 13 also happens to be "International Suit Up Day" as established on How I Met Your Mother, and "International Skeptics Day" for nonbelievers and conspiracy theorists.
According to the official National Day Calendar, Oct. 13 is already "National Train Your Brain Day," "National Yorkshire Pudding Day," "National Chess Day," "National Costume Swap Day" and "National Motorcycle Ride Day."
It's also "National No Bra Day" which, contrary to the prurient out there, is intended to promote breast cancer awareness and to help raise money for research.
Until next time, Kalaka quotes that great Southern philosopher Ludlow Porch: "There are many Southernesses comprising the Beardian theme of economic forces and the Faulknerian tone of tragedy and declension. The culture that was, or perhaps never was, leaves behind its pottery shards or lava lamps for display purposes only. There is but one symbol who has withstood it all: Robert E. Lee."
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HomeStyle on 01/20/2018