Old Beatrice & Uncle Tom

 

   It has been two weeks since I last posted and it is raining so I will attempt one now. It will be based, I think, on stories I just read in the Sunday papers. You will be relived to know that they are not "news" stories, since most such stories are rather bad these days.

  I will begin with the benign one about Beatrice. The picture above is from the North Sea off the coast of Scotland where the oil rigs, like the one on the right, are being replaced by the wind turbines on the left. There will be over 80 of them and the 50 square miles will be known as "The Beatrice Offshore Wind Farm." Her name was also on the old oil rigs. 

  You will not be surprised that I noticed the name "Beatrice", since I have written often about such names, mostly because they are being replaced. You will also know that I am not generally in favour of such replacements since the history behind them is often more interesting and illustrative than the monikers manufactured by the new toponymic totalitarians among us. 

  Although HRH Prince Charles of Wales reigned over the official opening of the "farm" in the Moray Firth, Scotland, old Beatrice is not British.  She was the wife of old T. Boone Pickens, who has his name all over the campus at Oklahoma State University. Old T. Boone was very rich and his story is more interesting than this post (see below for sources.)

  At this time I don't think anyone is suggesting that Beatrice be removed, but remember that the hummingbird "Anna" is being attacked for being named after the wife of a French naturalist. "Uncle Tom", as in "Uncle Tom's Cabin,"  is causing problems, even in Germany where "Onkel Toms Hütte" is the name of a subway station in Berlin. Blacks would be very much offended by being referred to as an "Uncle Tom" and the one pictured above objects to the station name as do many others. She is not alone and the naming authorities will probably have to re-name a Bauhaus housing development and the street, Onkel-Tom-Strasse. Just as I did not say much about T. Boone, I will say little more about the Uncle Tom controversy in Germany, since it is the type of  "news" story, of which there are already too many. If you can't figure it out, sources are provided, along with some other interesting bits.

Sources:
   For information about Beatrice see: "Giant Wind Farms Arise Off Scotland, Easing the Pain of Oil’s Decline," Stanley Reed, New York Times, Nov. 27, 2022.
   For Boone Pickens see the very interesting Wikipedia entry. The money he has given to OSU could save Laurentian U. and revitalize the entire industry of higher education in all of Canada. If you are a golf fan you will finally understand why so many of the foreign (and domestic) top PGA tour professionals ended up in Stillwater rather than, say in San Diego. 

  Information about the "Onkel Toms Hütte" controversy is found in this article, from which the illustration above was poached: "A Berlin Subway Stop is Called ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin.’ Some Black Germans Want Change," Meena Venkataramanan, The Washington Post, Nov. 27, 2022.

The Bonus:
   There is no doubt that you are still looking for something better to read on this dreary Sunday. Here is a suggestion, which allows me to plug some of my old posts. When discussing the various naming controversies, I have usually mentioned George R. Stewart. His name and book were mentioned in this article which also contains many other good book suggestions: "BY THE BOOK: Douglas Brinkley Would Like to Invite Thoreau to Dinner," New York Times, Nov. 27, 2022. Here is his answer to this question:
"What's the last great book you read?"
"During the pandemic I was transfixed by George R. Stewart’s “Earth Abides,” perhaps the most frightening doomsday thriller of all time. Most of American civilization collapses because of a strange disease, but a Berkeley ecologist is one of the rare survivors of the epidemic. Stewart wrote the book about 75 years ago, but his description of empty cities and the power of nature unleashed seem very contemporary in a world of Covid and climate change. It holds up well, and Kim Stanley Robinson wrote a fine introduction for the 2020 edition."
For more about Stewart and some of his other books see: George R. Stewart (1895 - 1980)
 My last post about geographic name changing is:  "British Columbia or Sasquatchia?" There are many more which surprises me.  

On Witches

   

  I suppose that beginning a title with "ON" may prepare the reader for something serious and scholarly, but when I look back at what I have done, it doesn't seem to be the case that the posts with such a title were particularly thoughtful. The two I found were: On Barfing and On Worms. This one is "On Witches" because they are again in the news. 

  The headline is: "Women, Killed as Witches, Pardoned." The pardoners are the members of Catalonia's parliament and those pardoned were the witches disposed of between the 15th and 18th centuries. Apparently the parliamentarians were following the fine example provided by those in the "Witches of Scotland Campaign" who are advocating for a pardon for the almost 4,000 witches tried under the Witchcraft Act of 1563. Apparently, as well, the UN recently passed a resolution on the issue of people currently being accused of witchcraft.

  I suppose I noticed the headline partially because it was good to have another example of victims from the past, since some of the ones today seem to think they are the only ones who have ever existed, and to remind them that their victim status probably resulted from something less severe than, say burning at the stake.

  The execution of witches is a serious historical matter since there were many of them in many places in different periods. Why many of the victims were women is a good question to be asked. There are also many other questions involving the disciplines of psychology, sociology and theology.

  The current pardons also create some good philosophical issues, the basic one being, does such retrospective contrition do any good since those pardoned are deader that the parrot in the Python sketch. I guess it does suggest that we are smarter now and now implicitly condemn the actions of those who killed the witches, although they won't know, since they are also deceased. We might also face a problem if the number of pardons issued increases exponentially as has the number of statues toppled.  Should those punished for blasphemy or the violation of what were known as "Blue Laws" now be forgiven? Probably not the former since it is still a crime in large sections of the world. 

  I admit both, that I am skeptical that such pardons do much good, and that I am not a philosopher. I don't think current Catalonians are responsible for the deeds done by those in the past, just as I don't think, as a former citizen of the U.S., that I am guilty of the crimes of dead slaveholders there. But, on your behalf, beyond reading the headline, I did a bit of research and found this:

"Like downed statues, posthumous pardons do not change public policy. They do not repeal bad laws. They certainly do not have any discernible effect on their recipients. But they have the potential to do much more than simply make people feel a little better about the past. In fact, they may be most valuable precisely for what they promise. In repudiating miscarriages of justice, especially those with racial overtones, such pardons make a statement that what was done in the past was wrong, and they serve as markers that make it more difficult for such wrongs to be repeated. At their best, they have the potential to restore faith in a judicial system in which many people have lost confidence, and to further the work of building a more just, more tolerant, and more equitable society."

Given the above and that the pardons probably "Do No Harm",  I guess they are harmless, so pardon me.

Sources:
  The basic headline, "Women, Killed as Witches, Pardoned," is found in The Wall Street Journal, Jan. 28, 2022.
   For the Scottish situation see: "Three Centuries After the Horrific Treatment of Women and Others Under the Witchcraft Act in Scotland, an Apology Could Finally be Granted in 2022," Hannah Brown, The Scotsman, Dec. 21, 2021.

The Bonus:
   If you wish to study this issue at the university level, you can shop around in the syllabi found on the campus nearby. Here are a few from the past: 

History 2459G (530)"Midwives, Madonnas, Witches and Whores: Women in early modern Europe, 1500-1700."

Philosophy 2006: Metaphysics & Epistemology of Witchcraft

HISTORY 2503F: "HERESY, WITCHCRAFT AND SOCIAL CONTROL:

THE INQUISITION IN THE SPANISH AND PORTUGUESE EMPIRES 1478-1800"