Today is the 200th anniversary of Robert E. Lee’s birth. Controversy is never far from any discussion of him:

The loud and public culture war continues. A Richmond-area Boy Scout troop created a furor over “craven surrendering to political correctness” when it decided recently to strip Lee from its name and logo. The NAACP has protested the use of almost $500,000 in state funds to refurbish the towering Lee statue on Richmond’s Monument Avenue. And when the Virginia General Assembly created a special commission last year to plan a year of events to commemorate the Lee bicentennial, the panel wanted Lee license plates and more lessons about Lee in the public schools. Instead, after intensely emotional debate — one African American delegate said Lee’s likeness reduced him to tears — all that was given was a $5,000 grant to publish a tourist brochure on Lee-related events in the state.