Petition to Change Names of Stuart and Lee HS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Madison and Jefferson were both slave owners. Oops! Better add those schools to the petition too.

There is a difference between honoring someone who did both good and evil, and honoring someone specifically for being on the wrong side.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Madison and Jefferson were both slave owners. Oops! Better add those schools to the petition too.

There is a difference between honoring someone who did both good and evil, and honoring someone specifically for being on the wrong side.

Why honor someone who did any evil?

I'm playing Devil's advocate here a bit. Oh. Am I allowed to write "Devil's"?

I don't think the schools' names should be changed.

[Anonymous]

Are we going to change the name of Lee highway, while we're at it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are we going to change the name of Lee highway, while we're at it?

Sure, why not?

How about anything with the word "Dixie" in it?

Don't forget. George Washinton was a slave owner too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are we going to change the name of Lee highway, while we're at it?

Sure, why not?

How about anything with the word "Dixie" in it?

Don't forget. George Washinton was a slave owner too.

Can I change my name?
I am highly offended that my mother thought I looked like a 65 year old librarian at birth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is this mission to erase all memories of the civil war? It happened. Justice won, and we all learned from it.

Should we also petition that they shut down the Holocaust museum because we want to forget that too?

"Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
George Santayana

There is this side of history, yes.

However, I think that the fact that these schools were named after Confederate generals only when ordered to desegregate speaks volumes (I have not researched the timing of the naming, and am assuming the history explained in the petition is accurate). These schools were not named to honor the Confederate generals. They were named to signal, loudly, to black students and their parents that they were not welcome, and to deter them from attending. And it was probably at least somewhat effective. It would take a brave parent to send a black child to a school that had just been renamed after a Confederate general. I wouldn't be able to put my kid in the middle of that s*&%storm.

I don't think that aspect of history should be erased - in fact, I think it should be more widely known that so many institutions took such indirect steps to maintain segregation. But there is a difference between whitewashing history and preserving a name meant to intimidate and scare.

[Anonymous]

Madison and Jefferson were both slave owners. Oops! Better add those schools to the petition too.

If you start changing every highway, park, school, town, etc. that is named after someone who owned slaves, you will have to change a whole lot of the names in Virginia (including Fairfax who had about 200 slaves).

[Anonymous]

And there's a petition to crucify, ISIS-like, anyone who posts on DC Urban Moms. The "C" in DC is for Columbus, who started all this nasty stuff in the USA. Oh, and the "A", for Amerigo Vespucci! Oh no!! And Virginia, after Queen Elizabeth I? The revolution, consuming itself.

[Anonymous]

How many union officers and politicians were abolitionists? How many believed in desegregation? Should those be removed too?

[Anonymous]

Don't the names Maryland and Virginia cancel each other out?

I'm ok removing some of the Confederate names/symbols, but where does one draw the line? Lee was rehabilitated, so does that mean his name should be scrubbed?

This is like calls for removing Cosby's star from the Hollywood walk of fame. If you remove his, shouldn't others be removed?

I seriously wonder where it stop?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don't the names Maryland and Virginia cancel each other out?

I'm ok removing some of the Confederate names/symbols, but where does one draw the line? Lee was rehabilitated, so does that mean his name should be scrubbed?

This is like calls for removing Cosby's star from the Hollywood walk of fame. If you remove his, shouldn't others be removed?

I seriously wonder where it stop?

I'm fine with drawing the line somewhere after undoing naming acts that were made for the sole purpose of intimidating black children and protesting integration. To say "we can't ever rename anything, because it's hard to draw a line" is absurd. It's still drawing a line, so pick a different place to draw it that doesn't communicate to students every day that they aren't welcome.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is this mission to erase all memories of the civil war? It happened. Justice won, and we all learned from it.

Should we also petition that they shut down the Holocaust museum because we want to forget that too?

"Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
George Santayana

There is this side of history, yes.

However, I think that the fact that these schools were named after Confederate generals only when ordered to desegregate speaks volumes (I have not researched the timing of the naming, and am assuming the history explained in the petition is accurate). These schools were not named to honor the Confederate generals. They were named to signal, loudly, to black students and their parents that they were not welcome, and to deter them from attending. And it was probably at least somewhat effective. It would take a brave parent to send a black child to a school that had just been renamed after a Confederate general. I wouldn't be able to put my kid in the middle of that s*&%storm.

I don't think that aspect of history should be erased - in fact, I think it should be more widely known that so many institutions took such indirect steps to maintain segregation. But there is a difference between whitewashing history and preserving a name meant to intimidate and scare.

This!!! Also, original pp, there are no Hitler high schools.

[Anonymous]

Honestly, I think the names should probably go along with Jeff Davis Highway. Also, Fairfax High' mascot is the Rebels.

The one that gets me is Harry Byrd Highway. The man actively opposed integration even closing schools for five years!

Mosby will probably have to go, but I wonder about the Mosby Heritage area in Loudoun? Is that wrong if it gives an accurate picture of him?

[Anonymous]

I wonder what will happen to monument row? Rchmonders love it, but the symbolism is troubling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thomas, sixth Lord Fairfax, for whom Fairfax County was named, was a slave owner.

We have a lot of renaming to do.

We could call it Generic County.