In San Francisco, Virus is Contained but Schools Are Still Closed

[Rob Wick]

Quote:I missed the connection of drowning puppies to changing the name of schools in San Francisco.

Well then Gene, allow me to explain.

David's whole point is that it's improper to take selected facts about someone and use that as a whole descriptive for their life and their work. I don't disagree with that notion, as much as I find drowning puppies to be repugnant. Yet, if one is going to do that with people that one admires, it is hypocritical to not do that with someone that one despises. I warned David that if the community of San Francisco is not allowed to change the name of a school if the majority of the community accepts that it should be done, that will open the door for people who want to keep Stonewall Jackson's statue at VMI or Robert E. Lee's statue on Monument Avenue in Richmond.

Only a local community has the right to determine what it right for them. If the local community doesn't want to hear about the numerous lives that Lincoln saved in the Dakota tribe, that is their right regardless of how historically illiterate it may be. You can't stop someone intent on being a fool from themselves.

Quote:By the way, Rob, what have you personally done to prevent the elected members of the San Francisco School Board from unjustly and unfairly dishonoring the character and reputation of President Abraham Lincoln? As far as I know, San Francisco is the first city in the United States that has considered doing something like this. Oh, yes, try to be as brief as possible.

Given that you can't tell the time without using 10,000 words (usually not your own, but of someone else) I'll do my best.

I have done absolutely nothing, and what's more I intend to do absolutely nothing. I am not a resident of San Francisco. Just as I would not want someone from San Francisco or Paducah or wherever to come into my community and tell me what our standards should be, I will not do that to other places. That is the textbook definition of carpetbaggery.

I don't think what you're doing is saving the character and reputation of Lincoln from dishonor. I think what you're doing is saying that the majority of American citizens can't see unbridled nonsense for what it really is, and that Lincoln has to be protected because his reputation is that tenuous. Believe it or not David there are people out there who don't worship Lincoln like you do. There are people who (shudder) think Lincoln was a tyrant or who don't agree that we should honor a president who writes that all men are created equal while holding humans in bondage.

Democracy allows us to support and laud those we like and admire. It also allows us to denigrate and curse those we don't admire. You can't have one without the other.

Best
Rob