I have never written anything positive about the Confederate States of America. The Deep South seceded to preserve slavery, not to protect “states’ rights,” and the centralized bureaucratic state created by the Confederates during the Civil War later served as a model for overly powerful bureaucratic agencies created by Woodrow Wilson, one of America’s worst presidents. But apparently, on social media, someone recently said that I am a “neoconfederate” who likes naming schools and roads for confederates.
This is untrue. I would have preferred that no school or road ever had been named for someone because they were a Confederate soldier or politician.
The only position I have taken in this area is that schools and roads shouldn’t be renamed at taxpayer expense when their name is just a last name that is shared by a Confederate, that is also shared by many other people. Because such renamings can cost millions of dollars in taxpayer money and millions of dollars worth of time updating people’s addresses.
When such a renaming is proposed, I propose instead that the road or school instead be redesignated to honor a person other than the Confederate, who shares the same last name.
Thus, I have suggested that the “Lee” in Virginia’s Lee Highway stand for a different Lee than it did in the past, honoring black Virginia judge Gerald Bruce Lee, rather than Confederate General Robert E. Lee. Arlington County instead spent over $300,000 renaming it Langston Boulevard, for just a few miles of the highway, which stretches through much of Virginia.
Similarly, I suggested that rather than renaming Washington-Lee High School to eliminate the name “Lee,” at a cost of $800,000, that Arlington County officials should instead change who the “Lee” stands for to a different Lee, such as Judge Lee. Doing so would have freed up money to provide bus transportation to all students (currently, students do not receive bus transportation unless they are over 1.5 miles from a middle or high school, or over a mile from an elementary school).
Here is my letter in the Sun-Gazette about the renaming of Lee Highway:
Editor: The Arlington County Board plans to spend $300,000 to rename just five miles of Lee Highway “Langston Boulevard.” But Lee Highway runs for dozens of miles across Northern Virginia. Giving each segment of Lee Highway a different name will cost taxpayers millions.
Changing the name will also confuse businesses’ clients and cost them revenue. And people will have to notify utilities, banks and relatives of their new address, wasting considerable time.
Instead of renaming the highway, why couldn’t Virginia officials just redesignate who Lee Highway stands for?
For example, the “Lee” in “Lee Highway” could stand for the African-American judge Gerald Bruce Lee. He presided over many trials in Alexandria and Fairfax. His name would be suitable for a highway, because he was once involved in setting transportation policy.
The County Board’s failure to consider this alternative shows it does not mind wasting taxpayer money.
Hans Bader, Arlington
Here is my letter in the Arlington Sun-Gazette about the renaming of Washington-Lee High School:
Editor: The Sun Gazette, in its editorial of Aug. 29, was right to lament the Arlington School Board’s misplaced focus on school name changes rather than student achievement.
Washington-Lee High School did not have to be renamed Washington-Liberty – at great expense to taxpayers – to avoid memorializing Robert E. Lee. The name “Lee” can just as easily stand for another famous Lee in Virginia, like the African-American Judge Gerald Bruce Lee, or the governor and war hero Light-Horse Harry Lee.
With the money it could have saved by not changing the school name, the School Board could have provided bus transportation to more students. Middle- and high-school students who live within 1.5 miles of a school are not allowed to take the bus. This places an unfair burden on their parents to drive them to school, because walking that distance is not feasible in winter months or heavy rain.
Hans Bader, Arlington
My position was not extreme, or reactionary. Nor was it more conservative than the views of the typical voter in my strongly Democratic county, where Democrats win national and state elections by huge margins of 5-to-1 or 4-to-1. Public opinion polls showed strong opposition to the County Government renaming Washington-Lee High School.
As one moderately-liberal resident explained,
Keep the name, but CHANGE the LEE. Richard Henry Lee (1732–1794) as a delegate to the Second Continental Congress proposed the Resolution for Independence passed by the Second Continental Congress on July 2, 1776 declaring the establishment of a new country of United Colonies as independent from the British Empire, creating what became the United States of America. He was a signatory to the Articles of Confederation and Declaration of Independence which followed from his Resolution for Independence. He also served a term as the President of the Congress of the Confederation and was Virginia’s first Senator from 1789 to 1792, serving during part of that time as the second President pro tempore of the Senate.
