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

[David Lockmiller]

(12-17-2020 03:34 PM)Rob Wick Wrote:  David,

You seem to believe that some secret cabal of un-elected officials (although properly appointed by the school board) are somehow in control of things and that just because people can't drone on ad nauseum at a meeting that their voice is somehow being silenced. I've covered enough public hearings to know that most people have no idea how to argue a point succinctly or keep from repeating themselves. A time limit on public comments is usually welcome.


Best
Rob

[O]ne public commentator made a comment about the unfairness inflicted upon President George Washington. The facilitator (a first grade teacher in the San Francisco School District, Jeremiah Jefferies) cut her off. In this same Zoom meeting, a panel member raised the issue of hiring American historians to review the panel’s final recommendations for renaming of particular San Francisco schools. The same panel facilitator abruptly informed the panelist that there were be no appropriation of School District funds for such an expenditure.

Another time, a different panel member made the point that none of the panel members had been forwarded any of the emails from the public that the administrators for the panel process had received (thereby, insulating the panel from considering any public comments regarding the fairness of the school renaming process).

Laura Dudnick, the public relations manager for the school district, said in an email:

“The panel has gone through a process to set standards for why the name of a school would be changed, to research to the best of their ability the backgrounds of the individuals or places that are namesakes for a school, and analyzed those under the panel’s established guiding principles. From this process, the panel generated 42 schools covering 44 campuses that it intends to recommend to the board.”

My Letter to the Editor, at the end of the second paragraph, reads:

I believe that the full Board will simply approve, with little or no discussion, the “blue-ribbon” panel’s carefully researched recommendations for individual school name changes, and then commit by a vote of the elected San Francisco School Board members to appropriate the expenditure of $10 million of public funds, and thereby, unjustly and unfairly dishonor the character and reputation of men such as President Abraham Lincoln and President George Washington by renaming San Francisco public schools named in their honor.

Mr. Quentin Kopp in his commentary piece in the November issue of the Richmond Review made the following statement regarding the San Francisco School Board process for consideration of renaming several public schools in San Francisco for just cause:

“Appalling is the word best descriptive of the Board of Education which, confronting a multi-million dollar deficit and virus impediments to classroom instruction, plans to change the names of 44 San Francisco public schools . . . . The estimated renaming cost is $10 million.”

Guiding Principles for SFUSD School Names Advisory Committee
Approved by Committee on July 17, 2020

Guiding Principles:
For identifying school names to be changed, the committee will use any of the following criteria:
We will seek to change the names of schools that are named for:
Second item listed: Slave owners or participants in enslavement.

It is indisputable that General and President George Washington was a slave owner.

Lincoln Discussion Symposium Post by David Lockmiller
RE: In San Francisco, Virus is Contained but Schools Are Still Closed – Post #38. 11-18-20

Before the start of each Zoom meeting of the Renaming of Schools Committee, there is a short period of time allocated to accept public comments. For the August 12, 2020 meeting, an older lady was accepted to speak. When she did speak, she spoke critically of the Renaming of Schools Committee’s evidence evaluation and consideration process. She began her public comments at “12:30”.

The lady’s prepared comments from which she obviously read, particularly relating to the efficacy of the School Board panel’s renaming process, began at “13:00”and were as follows:

“My comments today are to make noise(?) because of what John Lewis would call “Good Trouble.” Because I have seen something in the working papers, which only include negative comments. To me, this is akin to a trial in which there is no defense and only the prosecutors are allowed to present their case. And their argument leapfrogs over to the jurors and sentencing. For example, I think that it’s appalling, and shall I say, maybe even outrageous, that the working papers of this committee make no mention of George Washington’s leading the Continental Army at Delaware and Valley Forge. And he was the first one to sign our Constitution and was our first President. Washington . . .” [At “13:54”, the panel’s facilitator cut her off, by saying “Emily (?), you’re out of time.” I could see on my computer screen that the facilitator had been closely monitoring her permitted amount of time to make comments.] Emily continued briefly: “Without these men, we would become an aristocracy with a King.” [“14:04”]

Post #39, 11-19-2020.
The August 12, 2020 meeting of the Renaming Panel was both very informative and very uninformative.

According to the minutes of the previous meeting, the July 29, Meeting Agenda item #5 – the “Selection of school Names to be considered for renaming” – “was tabled due to time restrictions.” There was no public discussion at the July 29, 2020 Zoom public meeting of placing the name of Abraham Lincoln, or any other name, on the “Yes” list.

The following are meeting notes that I made regarding this key August 12, 2020 public Zoom meeting of the Renaming panel.

August 12, 2020 meeting notes: [this was a hyperlink to the online public Zoom meeting]

@ 37:00 mark and forward, discussion about criteria basics for name change and possibly having historians coming in before panel to discuss various names. The panel’s facilitator informed the panel member that there would be no appropriation for historians.

@39:50 “judge and jury” discussion

@42:50 committee member says that the members have not been receiving emails from the public.

@54:00 beginning discussion of Abraham Lincoln

@55:08 a big yes and no discussion and a laugh from the facilitator

Public comment at October 7, 2020 meeting @ 9:10 from Father John Chesterman, class of 1949 at Abraham Lincoln High School, asking why the name is being changed.

Press Release: Letter to SFUSD from Alumni Associations Against Schools’ Name Changes
BY SAN FRANCISCO RICHMOND REVIEW ON OCTOBER 12, 2020 •

This committee’s one-sided, embarrassing misreading of historical facts does not promote education or shared values. We need an inclusive process that will allow all communities to be heard, use professional historians applying verifiable data, issue a written report why a school name might be changed so the community can make a considered decision, and suspend the current process until everyone can safely return to school sites for the robust and thoughtful conversations you directed in the original Board resolution. Finally, in the midst of the District’s financial difficulties, we wonder where will the District find the estimated $9 million ($150-200,000 per school) needed to make these proposed name changes.

The two charges have been made against President Abraham Lincoln by the Renaming of Schools Panel:

Dakota 38

Massacre of Cheyenne and Arapaho people by the U.S. Army

The Sand Creek massacre (also known as the Chivington massacre, the battle of Sand Creek or the massacre of Cheyenne Indians) was a massacre of Cheyenne and Arapaho people by the U.S. Army in the American Indian Wars that occurred on November 29, 1864, when a 675-man force of the Third Colorado Cavalry] under the command of U.S. Army Colonel John Chivington attacked and destroyed a village of Cheyenne and Arapaho people in southeastern Colorado Territory, killing and mutilating an estimated 70–500 Native Americans, about two-thirds of whom were women and children. The location has been designated the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site and is administered by the National Park Service. This was part of a series of events known as the Colorado War and was preceded by the Hungate massacre.

Chivington and 425 men of the 3rd Colorado Cavalry rode to Fort Lyon arriving on November 28, 1864. Once at the fort, Chivington took command of 250 men of the 1st Colorado Cavalry and maybe as many as 12 men of the 1st Regiment New Mexico Volunteer Infantry, then set out for Black Kettle's encampment. James Beckwourth, noted frontiersman, acted as guide for Chivington. The following morning, Chivington gave the order to attack. Two officers, Captain Silas Soule and Lieutenant Joseph Cramer, commanding Company D and Company K of the First Colorado Cavalry, refused to obey and told their men to hold fire.

However, the rest of Chivington's men immediately attacked the village. Ignoring the U.S. flag and a white flag that was run up shortly after the attack began, they murdered as many of the Indians as they could.

I saw the bodies of those lying there cut all to pieces, worse mutilated than any I ever saw before; the women cut all to pieces ... With knives; scalped; their brains knocked out; children two or three months old; all ages lying there, from sucking infants up to warriors ... By whom were they mutilated? By the United States troops ...

— John S. Smith, Congressional Testimony of Mr. John S. Smith, 1865

Jis' to think of that dog Chivington and his dirty hounds, up thar at Sand Creek. His men shot down squaws, and blew the brains out of little innocent children. You call sich soldiers Christians, do ye? And Indians savages? What der yer s'pose our Heavenly Father, who made both them and us, thinks of these things? I tell you what, I don't like a hostile red skin any more than you do. And when they are hostile, I've fought 'em, hard as any man. But I never yet drew a bead on a squaw or papoose, and I despise the man who would.

— Kit Carson to Col. James Rusling

The critical and imperative question to ask in fairness and justice to the character and reputation of President Abraham Lincoln is this: What could President Abraham Lincoln have done beforehand to prevent war crimes being committed upon defenseless Native American Indians – men, women, and children - by Union soldiers following the orders and commands of a commissioned Union officer?