Would anyone care to comment on this article? We are not dealing here with an isolated case, but with a trend. Remember the big push to remove the Confederate flag? Or the call to destroy Confederate statues? Maybe we are dealing here with a new version of history belonging to the winner -- progressives have won.
How about the idea of erasing the founding father's from the names of SF public schools and Orwell's 1984: "He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past." Or what Orwell said himself: "The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history."
So, the founding fathers owned slaves. Sure. So did all other well-do-do people in those days We must not deny that or say "no problem." But maybe we should place facts in context of their times, not deny what existed?
If anyone would care to comment, I would appreciate it.
Hi Marcy. A new low for San Francisco, but not surprising. They also put
down Robert Louis Stevenson merely because he wrote *Dr. Jeckll and Mr.
Hyde* and also James Lick because he was wealthy, which I guess is another
sin too.
Who knows maybe a few hundred years from now folks will all be vegetarians
and they may look back at us and say how could we do such a barbaric thing
as eat animals? The leftists only look at things from this moment in time
and have zero capacity for context, and might I add that it doesn't bode
well that the head of the School Board of Education came up with this
proposed resolution. No wonder government education isn't turning out so
well--but they need more money regardless!
I can't get that outraged about it – it's not like there's any shortage of stuff named after George Washington – but I do think they could find more deserving targets. I suggested they should start by bringing back Embarcadero Plaza, currently named for former Redevelopment Agency head Justin Hermann who oversaw the destruction by eminent domain of the largely black Fillmore neighborhood in the 1960s. He had much less excuse for his actions a mere half century ago than Washington had for his at a time when slavery was so normal that "abolitionist" hadn't even become a dirty word among its defenders yet.
Now if they try to rename the school named after Robert Louis Stevenson, that would be going too far! He was a terrific author (not a politician for a change!), and as a man of letters, a more fitting namesake for a school if you ask me. Plus he lived in San Francisco and wrote at least one story set here.
Thanks for the comments! Yes, I did neglect to mention the swipe at Robert Louis Stevenson. In my conspiratorial mind, it all goes together as a gigantic progressive plot to strip our history in an attempt to strip our "selves." Good point about Justin Herman, but I would have to think about removing him from history. Maybe the Redevelopment Era should be remembered, and maybe just as the slave-owning era it should be placed in historical perspective. I go along with Aubrey about leftists only looking at things from this moment in time, having zero capacity for context.
Anyway, thanks for the responses. I will have to give this some thought.
If the goal is simply to remember the bad parts of history, I'm all in favor of that, as long as we do so in an appropriate way. For instance, I supported the effort to rename a local sewage plant after George W. Bush. Similarly I think it would be fitting to name a homeless shelter after Justin Hermann, if it were made clear this was a remembrance and not an honor.
Huuuummmm... Problematic. As a very old lady, I grew up steeped in Orwell, Huxley, Bradbury, et al. They all seem to agree that people need to hang on to all of their cultural and personal past. Not just the bad past; not just the good past. Line everything up dispassionately in a way to study things and understand them.