HAPPY LEE-JACKSON DAY! today we are all Virginians!

[underpants]

:)
:loveya: :hug: :grouphug:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee-Jackson_Day

Lee-Jackson Day is a holiday celebrated in the U.S. state of Virginia for the birthdays of Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson. The original holiday, created in 1889, celebrated Lee's birthday. Jackson's name was added to the holiday in 1904. Lee-Jackson Day is currently observed on the Friday before Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and results in the closing of state offices such as the DMV.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee-Jackson-King_Day

Lee-Jackson-King Day was a holiday celebrated in the Commonwealth of Virginia from 1984 to 2000.

Robert E. Lee's birthday (January 19, 1807) has been celebrated as a Virginia holiday since 1889. In 1904, the legislature added the birthday of Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson (January 21, 1824) to the holiday, and Lee-Jackson Day was born.

In 1983, President Ronald Reagan approved an Act of Congress declaring January 15 to be a national holiday in honor of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. Since 1978, Virginia had celebrated King's birthday in conjunction with New Year's Day. To align with the federal holiday, the Virginia legislature simply combined King's celebration with the existing Lee-Jackson holiday.

The incongruous nature of the holiday, which simultaneously celebrated the lives of Confederate generals and a civil rights icon, did not escape the notice of Virginia lawmakers. Legislators protested the holiday by waving pictures of Jesse Jackson, Spike Lee, and Martin Luther King, Jr. around the state capitol.

In 2000, Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore (NOW running for President :bounce: :eyes: )proposed splitting Lee-Jackson-King Day into two separate holidays, with Lee-Jackson Day to be celebrated the Friday before what would become Martin Luther King Day. The measure was approved and the two holidays are now celebrated separately.

[Captain Hilts]

1. It's still Lee/Jackson/King Day to me...

How crazy was that?

[TlalocW]

2. If we're all Virginians

Let me be the first to welcome Macaca over there to the United States of America. :)

Couldn't resist. Sorry.

TlalocW

[Virginia Dare]

4. Felix Macaca is a Californian, we don't claim him anymore...

:spank:

[Virginia Dare]

3. Stonewall Jackson...

the fundies in Virginia love him because he was very much of a right wing christian wack-job if there ever was one, a truly strange individual, but also a truly great general and commander. Have you ever visited the spot where his arm is buried? I think that is one of the weirdest tourist spots in Virginia.

[underpants]

7. No but God willing someday I will

However, the arm that was amputated on May 2 was buried separately by Jackson's chaplain, at the J. Horace Lacy house, "Ellwood", in the Wilderness of Spotsylvania County, near the field hospital.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonewall_Jackson#Chancellorsville

[Virginia Dare]

9. Yep, it's just his arm there...the rest of him is..

at Washington-Lee University I believe? I think that's where Lee is too.

[underpants]

13. I've been to Lee's tomb

It is right in the middle of WL campus.

Travler (his horse) is buried right outside and for some reason there were pennies thrown on his grave marker. I have never been able to find out why that is done.

[SaveElmer]

18. Jackson's Horse is next door at VMU...

Stuffed in the museum...along with the jacket Jackson was wearing when he was shot...bullet hole visible...

[Virginia Dare]

21. It is a biblical thing, what else?..

it has to do with the four horsemen of the Apocalypse, the verse goes something like two pounds of wheat for a penny. I'm no biblical scholar though.

[SaveElmer]

17. Close...

He is buried in Lexington...but in a cemetery...not at Washington and Lee...

I have visited his arms final resting place...it is very weird!!!

[sinkingfeeling]

11. Did you read the story on the RW Christians and their attempts to re-write history in the last

Harper's? The article talks a lot about their worship of Stonewall Jackson and a couple of other minor players in the country's history. Arkansas has Lee's birthday attached to MLK Day as well.

[Virginia Dare]

12. I didn't, thanks for the heads up!...n/t

[BurtWorm]

5. I did not realize that Virginians adored Sheila that much.

[Virginia Dare]

6. LOL!!!

good one! :applause:

[porphyrian]

8. I'm all for holidays, but why celebrate the birthdays of traitors as if it's a good thing?

Is that how people voted for bush the second time?

[Virginia Dare]

10. It's a Virginia thing...

we haven't gotten over the invasion and occupation yet...but the Iraqis damn sure better if they know what's good for them!

[porphyrian]

14. Admitting the problem is the first step towards recovery.

;)

[MountainLaurel]

20. Snork.

:applause:

[Virginia Dare]

22. If only it were that easy...n/t

[Glorfindel]

15. Cool...then we all get to be GEORGIANS come Monday

in honor of Dr. King's Day. As for Lee and Jackson being traitors: Nonsense. They stood with Virginia, which I believe George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe would have also. Former President John Tyler certainly did, since he was elected to the CSA legislature. As a Georgian currently residing in Mississippi, I congratulate Virginia for having contributed so many notable persons to our country, including your newly-elected Senator, Jim Webb. :toast:

[underpants]

16. Well, as my stepfather (a native Virginian) says

The whole country really is Virginia we just let other people run some parts

:bounce:

[Virginia Dare]

23. I believe those gentlemen saw things quite the opposite...

that their country was betraying them. I can definitely relate to that.

[Eurobabe]

19. Except for Macawitz, yes...

And I leave you with this poem by Anonymous...

To be a Virginian either by Birth, Marriage, Adoption, or even on one's Mother's side, is an Introduction to any State in the Union,
a Passport to any Foreign Country, and a Benediction from Above......