Lee Chapel - Andrew Taylor

I thought the trip to Lee Chapel was fascinating. Most notably because the tour guide offered an interesting opinion on some of the controversy that has surrounded the Chapel and the museum below. For instance, the recent removal of the the Confederate flags surrounding Lee's monument. The reading assignment from the night before had already educated me on the facts of the event, but speaking to someone who was directly involved in the removal of the flags was extremely valuable. For example, she pointed out to us how they had covered up the holes in the wall which the flags used to be mounted in. But what was most interesting about this was that she said "I usually don't tell people this". That short sentence carries a lot of interesting inflections. I think it reflects how Lee Chapel as well as the University as a whole want to avoid bringing up the controversy as much as possible. But why? It seems to me that the University did the right thing by removing the flags. President Ruscio plenty of legitimate reasons to not remove the flags (such as the lobbying of the local daughters of the Confederacy), and yet he still did. This to me shows the President Ruscio and the University standing on "the right side of history", and yet the tour guide made it seem like the whole event is something to be embarrassed of.