Public schools and roads in California bearing the names of Confederate leaders will soon need to rebrand if Gov. Jerry Brown signs Senate Bill 539.I'm ready to go all in on this renaming craze, and I'm sure our friends on the left will join me. Let's recall that Berkeley was named after a slave-owning Anglican priest. Ohmigawd, we can't have a city with such a name. And how about all those Catholics--you know, those people who don't like abortion like good Californians do--we can't have cities named after them! Say good-bye to San Francisco, San Diego, Santa Cruz, San Jose, Santa Barbara, etc. And Sacramento--the capital of the state!--is named after a religious activity, a sacrament! Who were the natives around here, the Maidu? Let's find a good Maidu name for Sacramento.
The state Senate on Tuesday voted 31-2 to send the measure to the governor’s desk. Sen. Steve Glazer, D-Orinda, introduced the bill this summer in the wake of Charleston church massacre, arguing that California should not be honoring those who nearly tore the country apart during the Civil War to protect slavery...
Among those institutions that would be affected are two elementary schools in Southern California named for Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. The small coastal city of Fort Bragg, a former military outpost named for an officer who later defected to the Confederacy, was exempted to ease passage of the bill.
You know what? My elementary school was Kohler Elementary. There's a street nearby also called Kohler. Hm, I don't know who Mr. (I'm assuming it's a Mr.) Kohler was, but I know that the school and the street were named after Camp Kohler, within the (former) confines of which both are found. I know what took place at Camp Kohler. Does it make sense to rename the school and the street?
How far do we want to take this? However far, does it take us in a good direction?
Update, 9/16/15: Utopia gets another step closer:
The California State Assembly voted Thursday to ban the state's schools from using "Redskins" nicknames and mascots, a move that could soon make it the first state to specifically prohibit schools from using the name that continues to spark controversy across the nation.
4 comments:
University of Texas at Austin, which prides itself on being liberal enough to be in California, voted to remove a statue of Jefferson Davis who was president of the Confederacy. The irony is that UT was founded with money contributed by wealthy men all of whom fought for the Confederate Army. I guess we should just shut that sucker down.
Give up, Darren. Lack of consistency or logic has never hobbled the workings of progressals.
Looks like it's time to rename Mt. McKinley and Mt. Lassen.
Mt Shasta is okay, however-- it has a native American name.
And EVERY city with an Anglo-American name must now discover what it's "original" inhabitants called it. (That's probably 99% of California's towns and cities--Hoopa will be okay, but most others will not).
You may read about Frederick Kohler here: http://www.cbi-theater.com/roundup/roundup021843.html
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