General Robert E. Lee Statue Finds Fresh Home 300 mi From El Paso
A huge statue of General Robert E. Lee has found a new home in Terlingua, Texas about 300 miles from El Paso.
The statue had previously stood in a Dallas park until 2017 when Confederate statues were taken down following the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville.
GOLF RESORT STATUS
The statue now stands on the grounds of the Lajitas Golf Resort in Terlingua which is owned by Dallas billionaire oil-man Kelcy Warren. Now, Warren and Scott Beasley, president of WSB Resorts and clubs are defending their decision to host the statue of the slave-owner and confederate general.
Beasley said the statue isn’t making any political statement and that it’s just “a fabulous piece of art”. It was made in 1937 by sculptor Alexander Phimister Proctor. Beasley says the statue was donated to Warren and WSB resorts in 2019.
“I would say that of the 60-plus thousand guests we host each year we’ve had one or two negative comments”, Beasley told the Houston Chronicle.
JUST STOP
If Beasley had just stopped talking then, it probably would have been better. Instead, he referred to critics of the statue as “uneducated” about history and falsely claimed that Lee was opposed to slavery and freed all his slaves. Actual historians categorize this as “revisionist” and “inaccurate”.
This is the opinion part of this story. Going to a golf resort with a giant Confederate monument would probably be a deal-breaker for me. Add to that the property manager’s obvious fawning over a man most famous for fighting FOR slavery and AGAINST the United States and it definitely breaks the deal.
HOWEVER...
The owner and property manager claim they didn’t pay for the statue and that it was “donated to them”. If someone were to offer me a huge statue of a Confederate general, for FREE, I would absolutely accept it. I read in the Houston Chronicle story that the statue had previously been auctioned for $1.2 million, so I would accept it just on the basis of its financial value. Even if I decided to melt it to slag, I could probably still turn a pretty penny off it. Also, I’d just have fun with it! I’d put General Lee in my backyard and dress it up for various holidays. On Cinco de Mayo, Lee would have a serape and sombrero. At Christmas, he’d be festooned with lights and tinsel. Around Halloween, I’d paint his face to look like a sugar skull.
Also, I think I could do some good for worthy causes with a giant statue of Robert E. Lee. Like, let people come by and chuck rocks at it for a $5 donation to the NAACP. Maybe on Juneteenth, I’d let BLM graffiti artists go wild on it.
Of course, I’d probably eventually melt it down into slag.