Abraham Lincoln statues

[David Lockmiller]

Last night, the San Francisco Board of Education (5 Members), the Superintendent of San Francisco Schools, and one other school personnel voted in favor in one vote for all 44 schools to be renamed in accordance with the consensus recommendations made by the School Board's own hand-picked Panel of dilettante historians. The vote was 6 - 1.

I had prepared my comments in advance based upon the email that I had sent to all seven of the Resolution Voters on Monday, January 25, 2021 at 9:43 AM. One of the School Board Commissioners gratuitously stated before the vote that she read the emails from the Public. Obviously, she did not read my email sent to her the morning of the previous day.

I watched and listened closely to the proceedings from 3 PM to 10 PM; I did not want to miss my only opportunity to make Public comment in case there was a change in the scheduled items to be discussed.

The President of the School Board declared the protocol for public comment. Public Comments in favor of the Board Resolution authorizing renaming of 44 San Francisco schools for just cause were permitted for 30 minutes (1 minute for each comment) followed by 30 minutes for Public Comments against the measure (1 minute for each comment).

I spoke at approximately 9 PM. I read from my lengthy comment prepared in advance. I was hoping for at least two minutes to read from my prepared comments. I believe that I got an early whistle ending my Public Comment presentation. I made it to only the end of the second full paragraph of my prepared Comment before I was cut-off and silenced (but I will have to wait until the Zoom meeting of last night is posted online to confirm this perception).

Of course, the actual voters on the Board resolution were given as much time as they wanted to make their comments on the Resolution to rename 44 San Francisco schools for just causes.

One of the Board Members attacked some of President Abraham Lincoln's actions during the Civil War. He noted that Lincoln had freed only the slaves actually in Confederate territory with his Emancipation Proclamation; thus, implying President Lincoln should have freed all the slaves in the nation with his proclamation. But the Board Commissioner made no mention of the fact that President Lincoln had exercised the War powers provision of the Constitution as an incentive for the Confederate states to return to the Union by the January 1, 1863 deadline. And, as a compelling practical matter, all of the Union soldiers from Border slave states, who had joined the U. S. Army in order to save the Union, might well have laid down their weapons and the Civil War would have been lost by the forces of the Union. No mention was made of this historical fact by the allegedly historically-knowledgeable Board Member.

This same School Board member also made the claim that he grew up in Maryland and knew some of the Civil War history specific to that state. He then made the false claim in the Public Zoom meeting last night that President Lincoln had shut down the Maryland legislature.

This was not a true statement. See my post #4 made on August 21, 2020 on the thread titled "RE: Maryland constitutional questions after Fort Sumter":

Team of Rivals, page 354:

For days, the rioting in Baltimore continued. Fears multiplied that the Maryland legislature, which had convened in Annapolis, was intending to vote for secession. The cabinet debated whether the president should bring in the army "to arrest , or disperse the members of that body." Lincoln decided that "it would not be justifiable." It was a wise determination, for in the end, though secessionist mobs continued to disrupt the peace of Maryland for weeks, the state never joined the Confederacy, and eventually became, as Lincoln predicted, "the first of the redeemed."

But who is going to know that the detailed historical statement by an elected member of the San Francisco School Board is either a misstatement of history or a purposeful lie? And, so, the statement is accepted as the truth by the voters on the the School Board Resolution authorizing the renaming of Abraham Lincoln High School in San Francisco.

Does this same School Board Member mention the role of President Abraham Lincoln in the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment legislation - the "king's cure" to end slavery in the United States? The answer is "No." I believe someone recently made a popular movie about this historical accomplishment by President Abraham Lincoln in 1865. (So, it should be fairly common knowledge, even among members of the San Francisco School Board, who then should have considered this historical fact in consideration of their individual vote on the Resolution to rename San Francisco schools, including Abraham Lincoln High School.)

The School Board Member's whole Public statement seemed to me to be a well-rehearsed stage play with the specific goal in mind to discredit falsely the character and reputation of President Abraham Lincoln for an unstated, but understood, purpose.