I believe that Lee statues shouldn't be taken down, since he only fought because his state went to war?
That's an incredibly simplistic take?
When Virginia secceded, Lee was not a Confederate General. He decided to resign from the United States army and signaled his intention to fight for the South?
It wasn't a case of Lee thinking "well Virginia are going to war, guess I HAVE to do it". He chose to fight for them, which yes he stated he did it because of loyalty to his home state. Although it should be noted that most of the Virginians that graduated from West Point were staunch Unionists and would fight for the Union, so Lee would still be fighting against felloelw statesmen?
This idea of Lee being a Southern gentleman General who was just fighting as a patriot for his state (lots of people also think he was anti slavery lol) comes from the whitewashing of history by various groups and officials post-civil war?
Lee was a monster, and not just a monster through our modern eyes, but was even seen as a monster in his time?
He treated his slaves horribly (even for the time), so much so that his treatment caused slave revolts to happen?
While he was anti-seccession, he was pro slavery and against slave rights. The PragerU video gives a quote of his that shows this?
Also, despite his supposed love for the United States, he did say in a letter; "The South, in my opinion, has been aggrieved by the acts of the North as you say. I feel the aggression, and am willing to take every proper step for redress."?
He was always for the pro-slavery south. He didn't fight for the Souhh begrudgently or anything, he didn't want succession, but he didn't want the north to tell the south that they couldn't have slaves anymore?
All in all, Lee was a monster, a monster for his treatment of his slaves and a monster on his willingness to sacrifice his troops whose history has been whitewashed and polished to make him look like a gallant patriot, rather than the traitor that he was?
Take the statue down and put it in a museum with the correct history and backstory of the man and his actions alongside it?
Why should it stay up? Why should it stay up in a Capitol building in the United States?