Abraham Lincoln statues

[David Lockmiller]

The School Names Advisory Committee methodology of judgment is both devious and malicious.

The powers that be in controlling of the process, set the framework of consideration to exclude any and all equitable and fair considerations of character and accomplishments by the individual historical figure being investigated by this Committee of dilettante (a person who cultivates an area of interest without real commitment or knowledge) historians. The Committee members have been charged with the sole duty to investigate and determine whether any of the Committee criteria have been violated by dozens of historical figures for whom San Francisco schools have been named. If conduct of a historical personage meets one of the predetermined criteria, that is that is all that is necessary for conviction on a consensus vote of the Committee.

Or, as the facilitator might phrase this unfair and unjust process, the Committee members must not "belabor" any other point than the alleged transgression(s) of one or more of the listed criteria of the Committee.

President Abraham Lincoln signed the death warrants of the "Dakota 38," the largest mass execution of Native Americans in the history of the United States. The members of the Committee need not and must not "belabor" any other evidence. This undisputed historical fact alone is both necessary and sufficient to meet the "Renaming of San Francisco Schools" criteria of the Committee.