Fairfax City to Gen. Lee : F*** you and the horse you rode in on.
The Fairfax City, Virginia city council has voted to rename 14 streets and highways in an area called “Mosby Woods” that honors the Confederacy. John Mosby, known as the Gray Ghost, was a Confederate cavalry commander whose operations in Virginia plagued the Union army. (He later became a supporter of Ulysses Grant and served as U.S. consul to Hong Kong.)
Among the street names that will be changed are Confederate Lane and Plantation Parkway. Lee Highway will also be renamed.
To my way of thinking, there should be a presumption against renaming things. However, I believe the presumption is overcome in the case of names like Confederate Lane and Plantation Parkway.
These in-you-face names were the product of a noxious ideology that prevailed in Northern Virginia when the community and its streets received them in the 1960s. That ideology had broad resonance. Mosby was the hero of a television show, “The Gray Ghost,” that aired throughout America in 1957-58 and lived on for a few years in re-runs. There was also a 1967 Disney movie called “Mosby's Marauders.”
This ideology, including the notion that the rebellion against the American Union was noble, no longer prevails — and for good reason. Accordingly, the renaming is in order, it seems to me.
However, I question one instance of it. The city has decided that Traveler Street must be renamed. Traveler was the name of Robert E. Lee’s horse.
The horse was neither a slave owner nor a rebel. He was entirely guiltless in the Civil War.
The city’s renaming spree disturbs many residents of Mosby Woods who now must change the address on their driver’s license and other legal documents. Those who live on Traveler Street have good reason to be upset, in my opinion.