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

[David Lockmiller]

(12-17-2020 08:57 PM)Rob Wick Wrote:  My point proven.

Best
Rob

I believe that there is "diabolical historical mischief" occurring in this instance.

I believe that Jeremiah Jeffries, a first grade teacher who apparently has little or no educational training in American History, was hand-selected by the elected School Board members to be the Renaming of Schools Panel facilitator. He would be the one in control of the operations and agenda for all public meetings of the Panel.

By consensus, the Panel established the following 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:

• Anyone directly involved in the colonization of people
• Slave owners or participants in enslavement
• Perpetuators of genocide or slavery
• Those who exploit workers/people
• Those who directly oppressed or abused women, children, queer or transgender people
• Those connected to any human rights or environmental abuses
• Those who are known racists and/or white supremacists and/or espoused racist beliefs

No other character evidence need be or would be considered by the Panel members. A violation of any Guiding Principle would be both necessary and sufficient “to change the names of schools that are named” for any historical figures previously so honored by the citizens of San Francisco.

Pope Francis in a November 26, 2020 New York Times opinion piece wrote: “It is all too easy for some to take an idea — in this case, for example, personal freedom — and turn it into an ideology, creating a prism through which they judge everything.”

Regarding General and President George Washington and many other historical names, the Guiding Principles listed for SFUSD School Names Advisory Committee, is the “prism through which they have judged everything.”

This short list of Guiding Principles specifically includes, “slave owners or participants in enslavement.” It is indisputable that General and President George Washington was a slave owner. Therefore, President George Washington is guilty as charged.

Never mind that as Emily stated in the short time permitted by the Panel’s facilitator: “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.”

More recently, the Presidents of five San Francisco High School Alumni Associations, who appear to have been alarmed by the proceedings of the Renaming of Schools Panel, issued a Press Release of their Letter to the San Francisco Unified School District (RICHMOND REVIEW -- OCTOBER 12, 2020).

These five Presidents of SF Schools Alumni Associations united in making three specific recommendations to correct what they perceived to be deficiencies in the Renaming of Schools Panel's processes:

1. Use professional historians applying verifiable data.
2. Issue a written report why a school name might be changed so the community can make a considered decision.
3. Suspend the current process until everyone can safely return to school sites for the robust and thoughtful conversations as directed in the original Board resolution.

Obviously, the elected School Board members rejected all three of these recommendations made by the five San Francisco High School Alumni Associations on October 12, 2020 in the Renaming of Schools process by the Panel.

President Abraham Lincoln’s case was different for the Renaming of Schools Panel. The charges against President Lincoln were issues of actual historical facts.

Two charges were made against President Abraham Lincoln: First, President Lincoln had signed the execution orders for the Dakota 38, the largest mass execution of American Indians in the history of the United States. And, second, Abraham Lincoln was President of the United States when a Union officer in Colorado ordered that war crimes be committed by troops under his command against hundreds of defenseless Cheyanne and Arappapo Indians – men, women, and children.

These are both false allegations of moral wrongs committed by President Abraham Lincoln against American Indians. Historians have proven these allegations to be false.

I have made detailed defenses, in words of historians, against both charges in posts made on this thread.

Nonetheless, President Abraham Lincoln will be confirmed by the Panel to have violated on two occasions, at least one of the Panel's strict guidelines for renaming of San Francisco Schools for just cause(s).

There will be little or no evidence in the public record for the elected members of the San Francisco School Board to consider; and, most certainly, not in any of the public Zoom meeting Panel discussions on the issues of President Abraham Lincoln.

I believe that the elected Board members will merely apply the rubber stamp of their public Brown Act approval and the deed is done. The name of President Abraham Lincoln will have been dishonored for unjust causes and there will no longer be an Abraham Lincoln High School in San Francisco, California, the city where I live.

The members of the San Francisco School Board could have easily ordered the Panel to follow the "just and fair" procedural recommendations of the united five San Francisco High School Alumni Associations Presidents, but the elected members of the San Francisco School Board chose not to do so. The Panel is the tail; the elected School Board is the dog.