Politics

Petition to Retain Confederate General's Name on San Angelo ISD Middle School Begins

By Joe Hyde, Jun 6, 2020
 

SAN ANGELO, TX — After much outrage from many corners of San Angelo, a citizen has initiated a petition to keep Confederate General Robert E. Lee on San Angelo ISD’s middle school.

“We are tired of everything being changed because of History. It won't change history. If people want change then they need to change themselves. History won't do it for them. Keep the name of our schools. Enough is enough! If the petition to remove is accepted then the petition to keep should be as well,” argued Billie Munguia on the change.org petition.

As of this writing, 474 have signed the petition electronically. You can sign it here.

The petition to retain Lee’s name began two days after the petition to remove the name. Right now, the retention petition trails the petition to remove Lee’s name. The petition to remove Lee’s name has 4,146 electronic signatures.

The decision to rename Robert E. Lee Middle School, 2500 Sherwood Way, rests with the San Angelo ISD Board of Trustees. The seven-member board led by businessman Lanny Layman will have to place the decision about Lee Middle School’s name on the school board’s agenda. So far, no agenda item has surfaced, but the controversy over the school’s name arose only by Friday.

One commenter suggested that if the San Angelo ISD approved a name change of the school, then those opposing it should also actively oppose any and all future school bonds. Bonds require approval by voters at the polls.

San Angelo ISD has three middle schools. Lincoln Middle School, located on the north side of town near Lake View High School was named after President Abraham Lincoln. Glenn Middle School, located near Angelo State University, was named after astronaut and former U.S. Senator John Glenn.

Following the Civl War, on May 29, 1865, President Andrew Johnson issued a Proclamation of Amnesty and Pardon to persons who had participated in the rebellion against the United States. The pardon did not include the Confederate leadership, of which General Lee was a part.

This prompted Lee to submit an application for his pardon, which he did on June 13, 1865. The request was ignored. Lee’s request was not granted for 110 years.

It took a joint congressional resolution for Lee’s full rights of citizenship to be restored, albeit posthumously, backdated to June 13, 1865.

At the signing ceremony of Lee’s grant of citizenship, on August 5, 1975, President Gerald Ford remarked, "General Lee's character has been an example to succeeding generations, making the restoration of his citizenship an event in which every American can take pride.”

To many in 2020s San Angelo, however, Lee’s redemption was not enough as they bang the drums claiming the name Lee Middle School is a symbol of systemic racism. Read more on the petition to remove General Robert E. Lee’s name from Lee Middle School here.

To sign a petition:

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Comments

wDougL, Sat, 06/06/2020 - 12:59

... to me is ... something happened at a specific time , a specific day , a specific year in a specific decade. I don't know or have an answer that would satisfy those that do not know or realize that history cannot be changed by changing a name or removing things that happened in history. I don't know, maybe if you explain the definition of history in layman's terms so that everyone can relate to the definition, maybe they will understand that removing an object or name will not change the fact that it happened. The death and murder of a man has been tainted by protesters that turned violent. His own family stated that the violence that started from people protesting against the actions of the four individuals has further divided our country and my thoughts are that it's shameful and we as Americans... are better than that!

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Mike... When one considers the influence the issue of slavery had on the Texas Revolution, it seems rather silly to get all lathered up over the renaming of this school. Lee was no more a bad guy than people like Sherman, who executed a scorched earth campaign through Georgia wrought largely against civilians.

I guess since those who helped make this place a state fought at least in part against Mexico to maintain the practice of slavery we should rename everything named after them. We're going to be busy.

By the way, I signed your petition since I still have interests there. Peace.

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Radical Leftistm has no place is a peace-loving, law abiding and free society.

We are witnessing the results of failed Liberal policy all over our Nation, and suffering the tragic fallout as we speak.

Fight this scourge, by any and all means at your disposal.

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The disgraced general loved his way of life and could not fathom having to pay someone to do all that manual labor. All slavery did was take jobs from American's(oh and the inhumane treatment of enslaved Africans). Keep the name for gawds sake. We must never forget the names of treacherous dogs who would take up arms against the United States of America.

Lee...... traitor
Beauregard..... traitor
Green...... traitor

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The war was never even about slavery.
The war stemmed from the North taxing the ever loving snot out of the South. Some states who joined the Northern cause were still allowed to own slaves as long as they sided with old two faced Lincoln since the North was initially losing.
Geez, get an education instead of following whatever the liberals tell you it was about.

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All lives matter as it pertains to history , we are all Americans and to tear down monuments and change names is racist self and un-American. I believe that if we take names down and Begin to take down flags we are also going to take down Christians and Jews and Muslims and any other religion that has a flag or monument up
We will start to destroy our deep history of this country and the battles and have been Fought inside and outside of our country and we would lose our freedoms of speech and religion.
America is known for its freedoms and we will destroy that by teaching our children racism by tearing down each other by school names, monuments in our history so we need to keep our history sacred for that is the American way of life.

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The Civil War happened; it is part of our history. In case you forgot, the South did not win. And we reunited into the UNITED States of America. Everything that happens in your life contributes to who you are. The same with history. Ask people on the street; in the grocery line, wherever you are. Today in the grocery line I got one "I don't even know who that is (a 20 something who probably didn't even study the Civil War - possibly deemed inappropriate by some teacher) and two "no it does not offend me." In case you were wondering, none of these people were white! So, what will you do with John Glenn, Lincoln, and Edison? Those were white men who changed our history. Are we going to erase them from history as well. Why don't we concentrate on making our city the friendliest, most non-judgemental city in Texas; in the United States?

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I bet that all of the people combined who are petitioning for Lee's name to be removed, among them there is not one who will take action to satisfy their desire to not "have to see his name as a reminder", one iota beyond the school name change petition.

As strongly as people vent their emotions on SAL, I bet not one of their convictions about Lee causes them to do anything besides cry about his name being up there. Nobody has the drive to fight Lee all the way out of our history, they cry about petitions and having to wait through a voting process and if things dont go their way, more crying about it.

Why stop your convictions at San Angelo, why not petition someone to remove his citizenship that he was awarded posthumously? Because people's convictions about this topic are only surface level...

Why tinker with any of it if you're not going to adjust it all?

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The school was named right before the civil rights movement. So it was basically a "You are not welcome at this school" type move. And his citizenship is not blatantly on display on the side of a building. He can stay in the history books, but things have got to change. People are making positive steps all over the US.

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Oh, there's going to be change, alright. But you Lefties and Marxist radicals aren't going to like it.

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Remember "Occupy Wall Street"?

After while, all the disheveled loafers/public shitters began missing mommy's sofa and their frozen chicken nuggets and went home.

A weekly allowance only allows for so many provisions. It's easy to burn stuff and scrawl crap on walls, but self sufficiency is a whole other ballgame.

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Yeah, I remember occupy wall street. But I was too busy working to pay much attention to it.

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I'm actually Independent, not lefty. Everyone immediately assumes that because you like one point from one side, but think other points are just plain silly you are immediately a liberal. No thanks :)

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hexi, Thu, 06/11/2020 - 21:31

is still going on. That is, if you even care.
Sex trafficking happens on a daily basis.
Selling healthy organs/trafficking goes on also.

Do you care, or are you more concerned about virtue signaling for your fakebook?

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You are totally right. I did not really think much about it until I joined the military and they did a Human Trafficking training. I mean yes I know there were dangers of going some place alone, but not to THIS degree.

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Harriet Tubman MS! Name it after a real hero and not a traitor. Lee opposed confederate monuments anyways, so if you care about him so much respect his wishes.

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You must learn the path of the Great American Warriors. This is the path of honor for our ancestors to stop the whirring of their mortal husks in their graves.

You must learn the proper way to consume dipping tobacco and the way of motortrucks - either Ford or Chevy, and once your choice is made, you may never falter from it. You must handle drink suitably, and your hardened countenance must invoke fear.

You are called to muster your bravery and to commit acts of courage. You must learn to carry a knife and to shoot properly, and should you ever aid a socialist in the slightest, you must confess to the community and take exile in perhaps California or Florida, but you must not remain.

This is the proper way.

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I went to Lee in the 80s and questioned the name even then. The point of American democracy is to continually make progress towards a more free and just society... that's the Constitution, not leftist ideology. Lee is an important figure for museums and history books. Public places and monuments are tributes... they celebrate the people whose name they bear. The comments section here alone makes me wish we had changed the name long ago. Enough with the politics... welcome positive changes because your kids deserve better.

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