In Berkeley school vote, Jefferson out (Sequoia in)

Oakland Tribune ^ | 6/2/05 | Kristin Bender

[NavVet]

If it is in Berkeley, why don't they just call it the "Marx re-education center."

[Robert A Cook PE]

Forget everything else Thomas Jefferson did!

He was a slave-owner!

Nothing else matters; But because he was a rich, white, land-owner, freedom fighter, President, ...... and author of the declaration of Independence (and others!).

But the rich Muslim, land-owners, slave-owners, anti-christian, anti-jew, and women MUSLIM slave-holders in Africa and Saudi Arabia are "freedom fighters" to the Berkeley school board and its teachers and parents!

(Because THOSE slave-owners are fighting the evil George Bush, no doubt.)

[Nyboe]

well by this reasoning every school, park, and road in America named after MLK should be renamed because it would be difficult to ask people to accept someone as a hero who was an adulterer.

Only one person in history was without sin, and that was Jesus Christ, so unless you want to rename everything in the world after him, I suggest people overlook historical figures shortcomings and focus on the greater good they accomplished.

[contemplator]

Jefferson was reduced by the author of the article to a "former slave-owning president" with no mention of any of his other contributions. Not exactly unbiased.

[Capriole]

I wouldn't have minded "Sojourner Truth."

Where I live, they name schools "Sequoia," too. This mystifies me. We're three thousand miles from the nearest sequoia. Perhaps liberals imagine that sequoias in some way embody values young children will find inspiring? I can't think of any human rights/activist connection to these trees, which is what usually moves the selection of school names.

[Capriole]

I wouldn't have minded "Sojourner Truth."

Where I live, they name schools "Sequoia," too. This mystifies me. We're three thousand miles from the nearest sequoia. Perhaps liberals imagine that sequoias in some way embody values young children will find inspiring? I can't think of any human rights/activist connection to these trees, which is what usually moves the selection of school names.

[infidel29]

Another nail in the coffin of our history. How long will it be until we have a run on "Clinton High School"?

[Renkluaf]

One of TJ's first acts when he was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses was to pass a law allowing a slave-owner to emacipate his slaves. He was soundly defeated! On any number of occasions (including writing the Dec of Ind) attempted same, only to lose. Wonder if the concerned citizens involved with the name change know anything about TJ other than what they were told.

[againstallhope]

I'm a parent there. Here's my take. Obviously (I'm on this board afterall, and certainly the only parent at the school who looks at this board I bet) I voted against the name change. I don't have to explain why. I'm against changing names in general. It's Orwellian.

I'll add one thing. Yesterday I was reading Malcolm Gladwell's book 'Blink'. He writes about psychological Priming. The idea is that you can easily influence a person's success or failure based upon how you 'prime' his/her subconcious. So, when I black kid enters the school yard and sees the Jefferson sign -- who he/she identifies as a slave holder -- the kid is going to subconciously view him or herself as inferior. It makes you think twice.

[Beckwith]

By the way, did you know that Berkeley was named after Bishop George Berkeley? The philosopher and influential thinker who came over from Ireland to start a college in the colonies. He purchased land and slaves. When he returned to Europe, he gave the land to what is now Yale. Yes, Bishop Berkeley was a slave owner.

Source: http://www.kgoam810.com/viewentry.asp?ID=329431&PT=PROGRAM

[Millee]

They'd have to be all girl schools, of course.

[Steve_Seattle]

Re-writing history and destroying traditions has always been a major preoccupation of the Left. I used to joke about church/state separationists' someday demanding to change the names of cities with Christian-derived names, e.g., San Francisco, San Diego, Corpus Christi, etc. Now I think it's not such a remote possibility.

[ZULU]

"The name Jefferson was there for all that time, now it's a different culture, different people," said Dora Dean Bradley, who worked on the name change and has a granddaughter at the school. "

Well its still the same country and the same Declaration of Independence. What an historical moron. A real iconoclast.

[boofus]

Is this is the same school district that said the Declaration of Independence was unconstitutional?

[ladtx]

John Garfield Jr. High became King Middle School shortly after Martin Luther King Jr.'s assignation in 1968. Lincoln Elementary became Malcolm X in the 1970s in response to his assassination, and Columbus Elementary was renamed Rosa Parks after it was de stroyed in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.

Wow. My mind has just been boggled.

[frossca]

Personally, I'm pleased that the name is being changed. If their approach to education is based in such narrow-minded view of the world, the school doesn't deserve to bear the name of one of history's great thinkers.

[boofus]

Just wait until they unveil Tupac Elementary school and C-Murder Middle School and 50-cent High School.

[ZULU]

It wouldn't surprise me.

Sophomoric is a good adjective for the Berkely community;
"wise fools".

[TontoKowalski]

"The name Jefferson was there for all that time, now it's a different culture, different people," said Dora Dean Bradley, who worked on the name change and has a granddaughter at the school. "

Well its still the same country and the same Declaration of Independence. What an historical moron. A real iconoclast.

We're of like mind. To hear Dora Dean Bradley tell it, liberty, academic pursuit, scientific experimentation, and all the other admirable things associated with Jefferson are sooooo last century.

Of course, Jefferson was a product of his times, and we can clearly see today the wrongness of slavery. However, we too (as a society) are products of our times... and I wonder how future generations will view the fact that today babies are routinely ripped from the womb for convenience.