The Confederacy Never Dies

Okay so I started selling my old textbooks on Amazon to get some extra cash and today I had to mail a package to Robert E. Lee High School in Staunton, Virginia. Is it just me or is it messed up that there's a high school named after the Confederacy's best general? 

It turns out there's another one in Springfield, Virginia.

And one in Tyler, Texas.

And Montgomery, Alabama.

And even in Jacksonville, Florida.

Turns out they have them all over the United freaking States. Look at this Wikipedia article. There's literally a dozen of them. Check out the awesome mascots and logos too: "The Generals" "The Red Raiders" and "The Rebels". The Wikipedia points out that a few more schools have recently officially changed their names to "Lee High School." But no worries, the schools are great. In 2007 Johns Hopkins University called Robert E. Lee High School in Houston a "dropout factory" where 40% of students drop out by senior year. 

If that wasn't enough there are also a number of Jefferson Davis High Schools in Montgomery, Alabama as well as Houston and Jefferson, Texas.  Isn't that kind of like naming a high school after Hitler? Maybe not as bad but I mean he was the president of the Confederate States of America, and the Civil War was one of the bloodiest wars until World War I. Plus, Davis was tried and convicted of treason. The Jefferson Davis Senior High School in Houston was also called a "dropout factory" by Johns Hopkins, but look how pretty their banner is...

Jefferson Davis Senior High School Football

Proudly Defending Slavery Since 1861

Other fun still-confederate south facts include:

• all of these schools are publicly funded and run
• Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, and Mississippi all have current state flags including or honoring the confederate flag
• in 1998 Mississippi dedicated the Jefferson Davis Presidential Library
• Lee's birthday is a legal and public holiday in several states including Virginia, Texas, Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, and Florida with three states holding it on the Martin Luther King Jr. national holiday (Virginia previously celebrated Lee-Jackson-King Day until 2001)
• Jefferson Davis Day is a legal public holiday in Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi (who chose in 2003 to celebrate it on Memorial Day)

I don't know about you guys but I'm sending my kids to the William Tecumseh Sherman School of Excellence in Chicago. 

After all it takes a real man to burn down half the country.