I don't want to take a stand that lands me on the side of racists and fans of the Confederacy. But I can't support the push by civil rights activists and Sacramento politicians to force a Long Beach elementary school to erase Robert E. Lee from its name.
I get the point: California shouldn't honor the general who led Rebel forces in a war that aimed to split our country and sanctify slavery.
I know the timing's right. The massacre of nine black worshipers in a South Carolina church has forced us —finally — to reckon with the Confederate era's ugly legacy.