Tuesday, June 14, 2005

What's In A Name

Kimberly of Number 2 Pencil has a post about the chuckleheads in the People's Republic of Berkeley who want to change the name of Thomas Jefferson Elementary School because, you guessed it, TJ owned slaves. Usually I grow weary with such stories of PC idiocy but Kimberly threw in a tidbit (thanks to EIA) that just made the whole thing worthwhile:

For a group so grimly determined to be outraged, one wonders why they chose to live in a city named Berkeley. The city was named after the philosopher and Anglican bishop George Berkeley (1685-1753), who purchased and worked slaves on his Rhode Island plantation.

Take that!

3 comments:

  1. Darren: Thought you'd appreciate the exchanges on Polski3's blog. Check out the comments:

    http://polski3.blogspot.com/2005/06/union-mantra-mooooore-mooooooore.html

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  2. "American Indians", a single term for a large and "diverse" group of several separate and independent tribes, practiced many things we don't think too highly of today. I hadn't heard of slavery (at least in the areas of what is today the Lower 48) but have heard of theft and slash-and-burn farming.

    But maybe they were naming it after the tree?

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