Showing posts with label Statues. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Statues. Show all posts
Sunday, 8 June 2025
Sunday, 29 September 2024
On Memorials
It's Not Bronte It's Brontë
Many public memorials and statues have been destroyed or removed in the past few years, if it was felt that the subject displayed should be "cancelled." In Mulcahy's Miscellany such destruction has been opposed. See, for example, the post about "Brock's Monument", or the one about the Vietnam War Memorial, in "Speaking of Statues", and especially the one that suggests a British solution to the problem, which is "Retain and Explain", found in "Simple Solutions."
Such a simple solution has been applied to the stone plaque found in the Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey which was installed about 85 years ago. Apparently those involved may have been in a bit of a rush since in 1939 there were other things to worry about. Diaereses have now been placed over the "e" and readers will know that they are the Bront-tay sisters not the Bronts.
Source:
I know about such things because I read this morning this article: "Westminster Abbey’s Brontë Plaque Had a Typo for 85 Years. It’s Fixed Now. Punctuation delayed, but not denied: A memorial to Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë at Poets’ Corner in the celebrated London church finally gets its accent marks," Lynsey Chutel, New York Times, Sept. 27, 2024.
Post Script:
The reason they are the Brontës and not the Bruntys is an interesting one.
"But the accent mark was actually the result of some poetic license by the writers’ father, Patrick Brontë. Originally Patrick Brunty, he made the change upon arriving at Cambridge University as a student, in an effort to indicate a higher social standing and eschew prejudice against his Irish roots, said Sandie Byrne, a professor of English at the University of Oxford."
"But the accent mark was actually the result of some poetic license by the writers’ father, Patrick Brontë. Originally Patrick Brunty, he made the change upon arriving at Cambridge University as a student, in an effort to indicate a higher social standing and eschew prejudice against his Irish roots, said Sandie Byrne, a professor of English at the University of Oxford."
Problems with statues and memorials continue to be a vexing issue for those easily vexed. A new, very plain one erected in Belfast displaying the late Queen Elizabeth, has been criticized because Her Majesty looks too much like a "Polish Washerwoman" or "the lady behind the counter at a "Fish and Chips Shop."
Tuesday, 25 July 2023
Simple Solutions
I have been busy for a bit and the weather is nice, but it is time to post something. I will again rely on the creativity of others, which you readers will find reassuring since I, myself, so far have demonstrated little of it. Here I will present two solutions to the problem that arises, when people who are more sensitive than I, come across something horrible or frightening when they are reading or watching in the privacy of their home or out walking in the public square.
Caveat Lector
I will keep this simple because it is and because I have touched upon it before in, for example, the appropriately titled, "WARNING." This simple headline summarizes it all: "Only Trigger Warning Needed: Caveat Lector," and it is at the top of an an article in the National Post (June 29, 2023.) The solution occurred to the author, William Watson, who thought of it after watching Casablanca. In it Ilsa refers to the black piano player as the "boy." Since Ilsa (or Ingrid) were likely not racists and since the film otherwise embraces and exhibits values the sensitive will appreciate (anti-fascism, for example), does the movie really need to be banned or severely edited? Mr. Watson, thinks not, and notes that "the harm done by giving offence to some readers or viewers is outweighed by the benefit from the work itself."
I agree and implied as much when I discussed in "WARNING" the new propriety pronouncements being produced on Turner Classic Movies. Mr. Watson suggests that Caveat Lector is better than "Contains Explicit Language" because generally we like language to be clear. I argued that "Viewer Discretion Advised" be placed before all films since now something in them will be offensive to someone. To be safe and to ensure the sensitive are not harmed perhaps all films and books be labeled with all of the warnings: Caveat Emptor, Caveat Lector, Caveat Auditor, Contains Explicit Language and Viewer (Reader) Discretion Advised. And, rather then ban or bowdlerize all older books and films or have librarians affix the above labels, a general public pronouncement, like the one found on beaches, should be widely promulgated indicating that all books or films produced before 2000 are to be approached cautiously: Danger: No Censors On Duty.
"Retain and Explain"
 |
| BEFORE |
AFTER
The solution to the problem of what to do with statues in squares or names on buildings which are problematic for those more sensitive than I, is encapsulated in the phrase, "Retain and Explain", which does have a nice ring to it. Rather than eliminate or subtract items and names from the landscape, we should add to them other objects or explanations which provide the historic context, as well as the present one which calls for the change. I will explain that the photos above portray the current view of many who believe that one should "Abolish and Remove." That is the statue of Edward Colston being dumped in the river in Bristol.
"Retain and Explain" is an English suggestion, but I learned about it in an American article. I will provide the citation here since it helps explain things and because one reader told me they never look at the sources I usually dutifully apply at the bottom: "A Philosopher and a Slaver, But No Longer a Name on a Library: No One Disputes That George Berkeley Was Among Ireland's Greatest Thinkers, But He Was An Unapologetic Slaver. Now Trinity College Dublin Is Taking His Names Off One Of Its Buildings," Ed O'Loughlin, New York Times, May 8, 2023. Although his name is being removed from the library, "students will still encounter Berkeley in the form of a 19th century stained-glass window commemorating his life in the college chapel. The school decided to keep the window in place, but add information about the controversy -- adopting a so-called retain and explain approach."
"Retain and Explain" does sound nice, but it is not so simple. An explanatory plaque adjacent to a very large colonizer on a huge horse, would probably not be sufficient and the arguments over the statues would be endless. as would the debates about who should do the arguing. There would be other things to consider, but this day is a nice one and I will leave you to do the considering and will supply the sources to assist, although I know no one will read them. Do have a look at The Bonus, however, since it lists naming problems on the horizon.
Sources:
This quotation -- "We believe that the right approach to statues, however contentious, is to retain and explain their presence" -- is found here: "Listing Controversy II: Staues, Contested Heritage And the Policy of "Retain and Explain", in Law & Place.
"Monumental Error: The Plan to 'Retain and Explain' Statues," Alexander Pelling-Bruce, The Spectator, April 10, 2021.
"The Times View on the Fate of Controversial Statues: Retain and Explain," The Times, Jan. 18, 2021.
"Retain and Explain is a Woke Trap To Rewrite History," Zareer Masani, The Sunday Telegraph, June 20, 2021. Here is his conclusion:
"What such examples show is the near-impossibility of explaining in short captions what are often complex and contested reputations. Public spaces belong to the public, the vast majority of whom have little appetite for seeing monuments defaced by sanctimonious disclaimers. While most of us would back the policy to retain, must we really suffer it being accompanied by simplistic health warnings similar to those on cigarette packs? By all means let's also explain, but ensure those who do the explaining have the necessary expertise."
The Bonus:
In the American article that started all of this it is noted that Berkeley came to America and that the University of California, Berkeley is named for him, but that the University is not changing the name. Yet.
I have produced several posts about names, naming and statues and you likely will have read none of them and I won't bother pointing them out. A related one that you surely did not read was my year-end rant a few years ago. In it, you will note my prescience, in that I predicted that the names of some universities will be problematic for the sensitive ones (remember Ryerson?) Here is that small portion from a post that was too long:
The larger issue relates to the complete university not just the structures on the campus. What if the name applied to the entire university is tainted? I feel that it is my duty to alert you to some possible problems. In short, you would short the following colleges and universities if they were stocks or securities. The alphabetical list by institution includes the name of the person along with the alleged ‘crime’.
Alcorn State (James L. He was a Confederate. Alcorn is largely black!)
Austin Peay (Austin Peay. Like Jefferson, fathered a black child.)
Clemson ( Thomas Green. Married Calhoun’s daughter - see Yale above.)
Drake (Francis Marion. Killed a few Pawnees.)
Duke ( James Buchanan. Tobacco.)
Furman (Richard. The slave thing.)
George Mason (George Mason. The slave thing. See my related post - ASSOL)
Hofstra (William S. Lumber business - open to the charge of despoliation.)
Lamar ( Mirabeau Buonaparte. Slave trader AND Cherokee/Comanche killer.)
Marshall (John. His papers are online at the UVA. Find the problem yourself.)
Rice (William Marsh. Guy was a capitalist and died a rather messy death.)
Stanford (Leland Jr. The son of a robber baron.)
Tulane (Paul. Confederate donor.)
Vanderbilt (Cornelius. Rich - “unmannered brute.”)
Yale (Elihu. Corruption charges. Elis may become as rare as Jeffs.)
Many colleges in the U.S. were founded by religious leaders and those named for such figures may be assumed to be safe from onomastic scrutiny (Wesleyan, for example) or maybe not (Oral Roberts). Otherwise if you are sending your sons or daughters off to college and you want them to have a ‘safe space’ , then perhaps you should consider a plainly-named land-grant university like the University of Iowa where the students are also likely to be less flighty.
As far as Canada goes, less work is required if you are trying to choose or avoid a university because of its name. Select one with a geographically-based name like ‘Toronto’, or ‘Western’ which could exist anywhere and is surely not offensive. You could simply avoid any college that is named for a person unless she is Emily Carr. In the east, for example, I would not choose Dalhousie without thoroughly vetting the Earl. In the far west the choice is easy. Go to UBC. It is clear that you should avoid Simon Fraser which will likely be attacked in the near future for reasons that are obvious.
The source for the above, where there is even more, is my cleverly disguised post: "This Is NOT About Mariah Carey."
Thursday, 17 February 2022
A Gathering of Kestertons
I just indicated in my last post, which was my first one in a while, that I have had trouble producing one every day. If I had any readers and they showed up daily they would be disappointed that the blog remained unchanged and soon would stop coming. I thought that perhaps what I could do to attract an audience of loyal, returning readers is grab short, catchy, bizarre, humorous, happy, or sad items and post them while I worked on creating something original. When I did so, I would group them under the clever title of, "A Gathering of Kestertons" so readers would know what to expect and anticipate that the content would be more enjoyable and interesting than something manufactured by the usual author of Mulcahy's Miscellany.
Michael Kesterton and "Social Studies"
"Gathering" is the collective noun I chose and you know all about them because you have read "A Murder of Crows." "Kesterton" you may not immediately recognize, but if I mention the Globe and Mail column, "Social Studies: A Daily Miscellany of Information", you may recall that he was the compiler of it. It was the first page of the paper which most of us turned to during the period from 1990 to 2013. Short facts, figures and tidbits were offered along with a "Thought du jour." Surely a similar approach by me would lead to a consistent increase in the imaginary Ipsos blogging ratings.
After writing all of that, I have decided against proceeding with this project and the first "Gathering of Kestertons", will be the last. Although Mr. Kesterton is deceased, I now realize it is inappropriate of me to associate his name with MM, since he would gain little and such an association could actually sully his reputation. As well, it is unfair because Mr. Kesterton would have had to do far more work for most of the period during which he gathered material. Work involving things like reference books, trips to the library and reading extensively, none of which one needs now to do. The Internet has made gathering much easier and the market is already crowded with publications offering listicles and trivia stolen from other publications. Plus, it is so easy I would be inclined to slack off and offer only the material of others and never do any heavy lifting myself. But, before I go, I might as well say a little more about Mr. Kesterton and his "Social Studies," and provide a few of his examples and, perhaps a some of the ones I would have offered had I proceeded with "A Gathering of Kestertons."
Mr. Kesterton passed away late in 2018 and Elizabeth Renzetti of the G&M notes that:
"Mr. Kesterton, who died on Dec. 5 at the age of 72, was the shy, quick-witted writer behind one of The Globe and Mail’s most popular features. By the time Social Studies ended on Canada Day, 2013, Mr. Kesterton had compiled more than three kilometres of arcana, world history, scientific breakthroughs, anniversaries and odd news, such as the time Sophia Loren apprehended a handbag thief."
The first "Social Studies" I have found is from July 4, 1990 and the items in it are topical ones even for our times. Under the subject of "Waste", figures are given for how much of it is being sent by us to countries in the Third World and how much more Toronto wants to have taken by truck into the third world hinterlands elsewhere in the province. Texans back then were thinking just like Texans now. Under the title "Texas Chainsaw Reasoning" a regulatory official did not think it terribly important to control the sale of the toxic chemical chlordane: "Sure, it's going to kill a lot of people. But they may be dying of something else anyway." Many interesting facts are provided and the tabloids can always be counted upon for attention-grabbing headlines: "Dog Lands Plane After Pilot Has Heart Attack" and "Strange Cult Worships Studebakers.'
The last "Social Studies" is found on July 1, 2013 and among the facts included are some about the column. It began on June 12, 1990 and "Social Studies" was only to be a temporary title. The difference between "Geeks" and "Nerds" is explained and the last "Thought du jour" was thought by Sir Wilfred Laurier and it still has some relevance for our time - "Canada is free and freedom is nationality."
I have offered snippets, quotes of the day, headlines of the week, factlets and even the odd apercu, when I didn't have much myself to say and I will likely keep doing so, but I won't gather them under the name of the late Mr. Kesterton. Here are a few for now.
Funny Quotes:
P.J. O'Rourke just died and left us some humorous ones: On leaving Maoism behind:
“But I couldn’t stay a Maoist forever,” he wrote. “I got too fat to wear bell-bottoms. And I realized that communism meant giving my golf clubs to a family in Zaire.”
About the difference between "Democrats' and "Republicans" - “The Democrats are the party that says government will make you smarter, taller, richer and remove the crab grass on your lawn. The Republicans are the party that says government doesn’t work and then get elected and prove it.”
Funny Names:
There were many in the old Wild West and Bret Harte says nicknames were the beginning of a "rude heraldry." Here are some: Antelope Jack; Albuquerque Alice; Hog-Eyed Nellie; Gunny Sack Bill; Pie Biter Baker; Cemetery Sam; Peckerwood Pete; Catacorners Ketchum, Wild Bill Hickok, Buffalo Bill Cody. Bartholomew Masterson, thought it wise to change his name to "Bat." He was born in Quebec and if you read the Wikipedia entry for him you will see that he was a very interesting character. For more nicknames: "Trailing the Alias," Waldo Koop, The American West, Jan./Feb. 1977.
Sad Place Names:
Point No Point, Washington; Dismal, North Carolina; Cape Disappointment, Washington; Little Hope, Texas; Boring, Maryland; Misery Bay, Michigan; Tombstone, Arizona; Dead Horse Bay, New York; Murder Island, Nova Scotia. "14 of the Most Depressing Place Names in North America," Bess Lovejoy, Mental Floss, May 11, 2015.
On Somnambulism:
This story was reported by CP back in July, 1979: (Barrie)- "A man wearing only a pyjama top was found walking along a highway early Wednesday about five kilometres from the motel where he was staying. Provincial police, who picked up the man after a call from a person who found him, said he was sleep-walking. The man was in good shape except for sore feet, police said. They did not identify the man, but said he was from the London-Windsor area."
On Statues:
Many are now being torn down and in this Reuters story from 1989 we can learn how to profit from such destruction:
"Budapest: Right Hand Man: A museum here had paid 500 (pounds) for the right hand of Stalin which was part of the huge Stalin monument toppled in the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. It was sold by the widow of a rector who had it in his Budapest garden as a decoration.
The Stalin statue, which was 28 metres high, was torn down during the night of 23 October 1965. The fragments were collected as souvenirs. The museum intends to show the right hand in an exhibition next year on the epoch of Hungarian Stalinism."
The Price for a Tongass Tree:
A 180 foot tall Sitka spruce is standing (for now) in the Tongass National Forest where it has been standing for a long time. Here is what it is likely to be worth:
"Even when the top and branches are lopped off, a tree this size would yield at least 6,000 board feet of lumber, said industry consultant Catherine Mater, who assessed the spruce’s potential market value for The Washington Post. It would fetch around $17,500 on the open market."
Another Murder of Crows:
Mentioned above and written about before, the murder of crows in Burnaby has a rival murder far to the south in Sunnyvale, California. See for proof: "A California City Overrun With Crows Turns to Lasers and a Boombox to Scare Them Away: City employees will spend an hour every night shining green lasers and playing corvid distress calls to humanely harass the birds into leaving, Margaret Osborne, Smithsonian Magazine, Jan. 20, 2022. And: "A California City Is Overrun by Crows. Could a Laser Be the Answer? In a move befitting its Silicon Valley setting, the city of Sunnyvale, Calif., will aim a laser at 1,000 birds that have overwhelmed the downtown area during the pandemic," Alyssa Lukpat, NYT, Jan. 17, 2022
Friday, 4 February 2022
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"
Monday, 24 January 2022
THEODORE ROOSEVELT
Riding Off Into The Sunset
You will probably not be surprised that the statue of the old Rough Rider is being removed from the pavement around the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. Although he was the governor of New York and the 26th president of the United States, the behaviour of this Roosevelt is a little too robust for our time. As well, he is flanked above by an Indigenous man and an African American. A study of the statue yielded a report and in it is this: “Height is power in public art, and Roosevelt’s stature on his noble steed visibly expresses dominance and superiority over the Native American and African figures..."
The "Equestrian Statue of Theodore Roosevelt" was at the museum, not because Roosevelt was the governor or the president, but because his father was one of the founders of the Museum and Roosevelt himself was a naturalist. The statue has been in place for over 80 years, but in more recent ones has been criticized. An attempt was made to "contextualize" it and soften the statue with some signage, but after the George Floyd incident in 2020, it was "abundantly clear that this approach is not sufficient."
Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library
You will be surprised that a new home for President Roosevelt has been found on the grounds of the new Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in Medora, North Dakota. It is scheduled to open in 2026 and the people associated with it think "The World Needs Theodore Roosevelt Now More Than Ever." In addition, they think: "We can embrace his flaws, understand T.R. as a human being, and discover what we can learn from him, not just about him. We can embrace immersive storytelling, new technologies, and build a digital library for an analog president; this museum can be a platform for embracing civic dialogue, thoughtful debate, and inspiration around the globe." Seems reasonable to me.
Although Theodore Roosevelt is being sent into exile, at least the statue will still exist. It should be comfortable there since Roosevelt spend a lot of time in the west and owned a ranch in the Dakotas. It will also be both a cleaner and quieter location.
As I mentioned, I think it clear that the old Rough Rider is too rambunctious for our time and even out west he may face some difficulties given that almost 100 acres of land is being devoted to him. It was already owned by the U.S.Forest Service, but still there are many out there who don't think the government should own any land at all. The subtitle of one Roosevelt biography calls him a "Many Sided American" and wherever he ends up in the United States, there will be one side, speaking loudly and carrying big sticks, who thinks he should not be around.
Sources:
Sources:
"New York City's Natural History Museum Has Removed a Theodore Roosevelt Statue," Rachael Treisman, NPR, January 20, 2022.
"Roosevelt Statue to Head to Presidential Library in North Dakota: The American Museum of Natural History’s memorial, which has stirred objections as a symbol of colonialism and racism, is planned for display at a library opening in 2026. NYT, Sarah Bahr Nov. 19, 2021.
The Bonus:
If you don't mind seeing lots of trophy mounts, take the virtual tour of Roosevelt's place on Long Island: The Sagamore Hill National Historic Site, Oyster Bay, NY.
Monday, 13 July 2020
Brock's Monument
Statues Again
In an attempt to ignore, and avoid commenting upon, the continuous contemporary kerfuffles over things like words and statues, I grabbed from the shelf a copy of Dicken’s American Notes for General Circulation. It is the “Cheap Edition” published in 1850 and it was withdrawn and discarded by the Library in which I used to work. Even in a book originally published over 175 years ago, however, the subject of statues and the destruction of them could not be avoided. After travelling through the States, Dickens detours to Canada on his way home. Upon reaching the Niagara Peninsula he sees the huge statue of General Brock, which had been partially destroyed for political reasons. Here is his description which includes his opinion of what should be done.
From American Notes:
On the most conspicuous of these heights stood a monument erected by the Provincial legislature in memory of General Brock, who was slain in a battle with the American Forces, after having won the victory. Some vagabond, supposed to be a fellow of the name of Lett, who is now, or who lately was, in prison as a felon, blew up this monument two years ago, and it is now a melancholy ruin, with a long fragment of iron railing hanging dejectedly from its top, and waving to and fro like a wild ivy branch or broken vine stem. It is of much higher importance than it may seem, that this statue should be repaired at the public cost, as it ought to have been long ago. Firstly, because it is beneath the dignity of England to allow a memorial raised in honour of one of her defenders, to remain in this condition, on the very spot where he died. Secondly, because the sight of it in its present state, and the recollection of the unpunished outrage which brought it to this pass, is not very likely to soothe down border feelings among English subjects here, or compose their border quarrels and dislikes.
General Brock died in the Battle of Queenston Heights during the War of 1812. The monument to him was blown apart in 1840, most likely by Benjamin Lett who hated the British and Brock was a British General. The monument was replaced in the 1850s.
Generally, General Brock has been regarded as a hero and there are towns and streets named after him. There is another statue of him not far from Niagara on the campus of Brock University. Now, however, sentiments are shifting and his statue and the things named to honour him, may soon be scrutinized by those who wish to erase all the horrible things in history.
Sources:
There are Wikipedia entries for Isaac Brock, Brock's Monument and Benjamin Lett.
American Notes is available electronically over the Internet and is an enjoyable read.
The picture above is provided by Niagara Tourism and for now the monument is still standing.
The Bonus Stuff:
The issue of potentially problematic university names was touched upon in my prescient, but unread year-end post back in 2017. I did not include Brock University, but I did mention some other Canadian ones and several in the U.S. In answer to the question I posed - "Do Larger Problems Loom?" I suggested that these universities might consider setting up a "New Name Committee".
The larger issue relates to the complete university not just the structures on the campus. What if the name applied to the entire university is tainted? I feel that it is my duty to alert you to some possible problems. In short, you would short the following colleges and universities if they were stocks or securities. The alphabetical list by institution includes the name of the person along with the alleged ‘crime’.
Alcorn State (James L. He was a Confederate. Alcorn is largely black!)
Austin Peay (Austin Peay. Like Jefferson, fathered a black child.)
Clemson ( Thomas Green. Married Calhoun’s daughter - see Yale above.)
Drake (Francis Marion. Killed a few Pawnees.)
Duke ( James Buchanan. Tobacco.)
Furman (Richard. The slave thing.)
George Mason (George Mason. The slave thing. See my related post - ASSOL)
Hofstra (William S. Lumber business - open to the charge of despoliation.)
Lamar ( Mirabeau Buonaparte. Slave trader AND Cherokee/Comanche killer.)
Marshall (John. His papers are online at the UVA. Find the problem yourself.)
Rice (William Marsh. Guy was a capitalist and died a rather messy death.)
Stanford (Leland Jr. The son of a robber baron.)
Tulane (Paul. Confederate donor.)
Vanderbilt (Cornelius. Rich - “unmannered brute.”)
Yale (Elihu. Corruption charges. Elis may become as rare as Jeffs.)
Many colleges in the U.S. were founded by religious leaders and those named for such figures may be assumed to be safe from onomastic scrutiny (Wesleyan, for example) or maybe not (Oral Roberts). Otherwise if you are sending your sons or daughters off to college and you want them to have a ‘safe space’ , then perhaps you should consider a plainly-named land-grant university like the University of Iowa where the students are also likely to be less flighty.
As far as Canada goes, less work is required if you are trying to choose or avoid a university because of its name. Select one with a geographically-based name like ‘Toronto’, or ‘Western’ which could exist anywhere and is surely not offensive. You could simply avoid any college that is named for a person unless she is Emily Carr. In the east, for example, I would not choose Dalhousie without thoroughly vetting the Earl. In the far west the choice is easy. Go to UBC. It is clear that you should avoid Simon Fraser which will likely be attacked in the near future for reasons that are obvious.
I know I said I would keep this short, but I have failed and am still going. But, as an aside to the aside above I can’t help but wonder about what happened to Sir George Williams University in Montreal. Was it erased because Sir George was guilty of something? I recall a riot there and the takeover of the Henry F. Hall building. Was it because of the name of the building? I seem to remember that it had something to do with racism (see Ryerson above). I will leave it to you to sort this all out while I move on.
The entire lengthy post is found here
Wednesday, 17 October 2018
Aperçu #2
Historical Censoriousness
We continue to topple statues and erase names from buildings and I suggested in an earlier post that we should, in most cases, hold our judgement in reserve. The author of Aperçu #2 agrees:
" Yet we need to be charitable about the moral failings of our ancestors - not as an act of charity to them but as an act of charity to ourselves. Our own unconscious assumptions and cultural habits are doubtless just as impregnated with bias as theirs were. We should be kind to them, as we ask the future to be kind to us."
Source: "American Prophet: The Gifts of Frederick Douglas," Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, Oct. 15, 2018, p. 82.
Post Script: My earlier suggestion is found in my own rather censorious post and year-end rant in which I quoted from The Whig Interpretation of History.
“The dispensing of moral judgments upon people or upon actions in retrospect,” wrote Butterfield, is the “most useless and unproductive of all forms of reflection.”
Tuesday, 19 December 2017
Speaking of Statues
Relax, I said about all I had to say on this subject in my year-end rant where I suggested that there should be a statute of limitations on the elimination of statues. Perhaps I should also have suggested that we should no longer construct any at all. I say this now because I had forgotten about the controversy over the memorial to the Vietnam War, but was reminded of it because of a new book on this subject. I will put down a few words which may serve to help me not forget again.
The new book is James Reston Jr.’s “A Rift in the Earth: Art, Memory, and the Fight for a Vietnam War Memorial”, in which he “recounts the bitter debate over Lin’s design and the contest between Lin and Frederick Hart, who was commissioned to make the memorial more appealing to traditionalists with the addition of a bronze statue known as “Three Soldiers.”
Apparently I am not the only one who forgot about all this since one reviewer notes; “Maya Lin’s Vietnam Veterans Memorial has been so successful that one almost forgets the ugly storms of racism and misogyny with which opponents of the design fought the young architect more than 35 years ago.” (One opponent said it “was designed by a gook.”)
Perhaps future statues should be virtual rather than concrete so they can be more easily deleted.
Post Script:
For a couple of reviews of the book see: “Fighting a War Over a War Memorial,” Philip Kennicott, Washington Post, Dec. 1, 2017 and “The Right Way to Memorialize an Unpopular War,” by Michael J. Lewis, New York Times, Sept. 11, 2017.
There are at least two more books on the subject: To Heal a Nation, by Jan Scruggs and Joel Swerdlow and Robert Doubek’s, Creating the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
In my year-end jeremiad relating to political correctness and STATUES I also considered WORDS, particularly those which should no longer be used. One of them is MASTER. You will be pleased to learn that that odious word has now received Canadian censure: “York University Scraps 'College Master' Academic Title to Cut Association to Discrimination and Racism”, National Post, Dec. 18, 2017.
Although Canadians were slightly slower than Americans in banning “Master”, it looks like we may be taking the lead in banning words that are not offensive, but sound like they might be:
“A Simon Fraser University (SFU) professor has launched a petition urging officials to change the school’s team name from The Clan, suggesting it could offend U.S.-based opponents and potentially put student athletes at risk.The university’s teams are known as The Clan, formerly the Clansmen, in honour of the Scottish heritage of the man the school is named after.”
No doubt as this is being written hundreds of bowdlerizers are scouring lengthy lists of homonyms, homographs and heterographs looking for new words to ban. I do suppose, however, that the rather dramatic loss of words from our vocabulary may be more than offset by the addition of new gender pronouns.
My rant was cleverly concealed, but if you wish to know what I said see here since I have made the early resolution to abandon things controversial and contemporary in the coming year.
Wednesday, 24 May 2017
Southern Dining
A Round Table Again
A while back I posted a short piece about a lazy-Susan-type-table I read about in a book about the South. Reading another book about the area, I have again encountered such a table. It does make some sense to be able to twirl a large bowl of ‘taters around, rather than attempt to lift one to pass along. Here is a description of the table that appears in the picture above and a brief discussion of the conversation that was held around it.
“The Delta: The Round Table” (p.109)
“I joined eight strangers for lunch at the family-style Round Table at the Walnut Hills Restaurant in Vicksburg. Anyone at all could sit at the Round Table, among strangers or friends, and eat together. This bungalow on a side street had been recommended for its home cooking. Introducing myself, I said where I’d come from.
“Set yourself down,” one man said.
But an older woman muttered in a resentful way, “You know what you did to us?”
The memory had become a taunt. The others at the table, all of them local, and most of them strangers to each other, although chatting amiably, went silent, waiting for my reply. They knew she was referring to the long siege of Vicksburg by the Union Army in 1864…. “I personally did not do anything to you. The South seceded. The North responded. All’s well that ends well.”
This sort of response -- sometimes heartfelt, sometimes a bitter joke, sometimes spoken with defiant nostalgia -- is so commonly uttered in the South, always by whites, to a Northern visitor, that I learned not to say, “That was a hundred and fifty years ago,” but instead listened with sympathy, because conquered people feel helpless, and the proof of this is in the monotony of their complaint. The nagging on this point, ancient to me but fresh as today in their minds, gives the North -- of which I was the embodiment that morning -- a fresh magnitude.”
More important than my reporting about my less-than-astonishing experience of reading about two round tables in two separate books in a very short period, is the conversation. It helps those of us way up above the Mason-Dixon line understand why there is such a current kerfuffle about the removal of statues in New Orleans. I also wrote about statues a while back and, as I said then, perhaps there should be a statute of limitations on the elimination of statues.
Sources: The book from which this discussion is taken is Deep South, by Paul Theroux. The photo is found on the site of the Walnut Hills Restaurant in Vicksburg. The posts you will find below.
By the way, I enjoyed the book and you likely will as well. It is unfortunate, however, that some of the descriptions of the decaying conditions Theroux found on his road trips, rival in their bleakness, those found in The Road, by Cormac McCarthy.
Tuesday, 3 January 2017
This Is NOT About Mariah Carey
Nor is about a Kardashian and (for Canadians) it has no information about Drake or Bieber. I mention Carey’s name because apparently she did something silly on the eve of the new year. Perhaps many of us did. You probably landed here because of those words since I have not otherwise made this blog public or attempted in the least to popularize it. So you best move on if you are at all interested in those people. It was a cheap trick and it was also a way for me to avoid any more thinking about what encompassing title I could apply to the mess that follows.
Preamble
Such things are not usually supplied in what is supposed to be a blog. Posts are expected to be more like tweets. Mine have been more like essays. I will try to be better this year.
A preamble is required because you will soon see that this post was started in the last hours of last year with the intention that it be completed by the time corks were popped. If it was a typical post it would have been. I missed the deadline, but I did end up drinking a fair amount. I will admit that more time was spent avoiding the completion of this task than was spent doing it. Procrastinating, drinking, etc.; this year seems to begin much like the others. But, it is tomorrow that will bring change since my resolutions now kick in at the next midnight. I will try to be better this year.
The Last Post (of 2016)
Once again I have fallen behind and this time I will blame it on the holiday season, which, I think you will agree, serves to stifle the creative impulses in favour of the more acquisitive ones. So I am left at year-end with a few new toys and lots of leftover notes and it is those I will try to dispense with here. Unfortunately the jottings chosen all seem to involve issues that are contemporary and which apparently I found irritating. I promise (again) that next year I will retreat into the past and consider more prosaic issues, less political in nature. There, that gives you something to look forward to in the new year which I hope is a good one for us all. Surely it will be better than this one about which there is much to lament and which explains the rather sorrowful title applied above this paragraph.
Since the annual deadline is fast approaching I will surely not be able to do justice to these topics or tie them tightly together. Perhaps I can supply some coherence in advance by alerting you to the fact that they all seem to illustrate that we have become rather more nasty and censorious and rather less tolerant and amiable. Evidence of such traits seems to be particularly evident on college campuses. Often the disputes involve our sub-themes which will be Words, Names and Statues.
WORDS
Be Careful What You Say
More time has passed since I composed the words above and this means the time remaining before the last midnight hour of 2016 has been reduced. Now rather than offering you a typical year-end list such as the “The Top Ten Ludicrous Episodes of 2016” I will simply use such incidents to offer some advice and predictions.
As a loyal reader you may recall that I have been lecturing to you about words you should no longer use. If you look under the label “Expurgations” you will find there that the last example I provided of a word that was to be expunged was “mistress”. To that you should now add the word “master”. It was often used to describe the position held by those who were the head of residences at Ivy League universities and it is no longer acceptable:
“The title of “master” has come under fire by some students at Harvard and other universities, including Yale and Princeton, for conjuring connotations of slavery, although its roots are from centuries-old European terms for a teacher, chief servant or head of household.”
I am not sure if one still will be able to get a master’s degree. Now that I think about it, the bachelor’s might even be problematic. If they are thinking about a new label and seeking gender parity in such matters they might want to rule out “spinster” as in “ I got my spinster’s from Stanford”.
The word “slavery” appears above and you are reminded to be cautious how you use it. A fellow at Wilfred Laurier University was just fired because his clearly humourous use of the word “slave” was found not to be funny. Nothing much is these days, including Halloween.
My final bit of linguistic advice: if you reside in the Occidental world it is best to avoid the use of the word “Oriental”. I realize that for many of us it seems harmless and that Oxford still has a “Faculty of Oriental Studies”, but unless you are talking about rugs stop using the word.
In fact, I suggest you not refer to any group of people. If you insist, however, here is the relevant portion of a new U.S. bill that attempts to modernize the terms applied to minorities. This should clarify things for you: “Section 211(f)(1) of the Department of Energy Organization Act (42 U.S.C. 7141(f)(1)) is amended by striking a Negro, Puerto Rican, American Indian, Eskimo, Oriental, or Aleut or is a Spanish speaking individual of Spanish descent and inserting Asian American, Native Hawaiian, a Pacific Islander, African American, Hispanic, Puerto Rican, Native American, or an Alaska Native.”
Perhaps, dear reader, I should pause here to provide an example of a related incident which I found to be ludicrous. If you think not, then perhaps you should not read on. It involved a poem and a reference to one of the groups referred to above. Some think the poem offensive; I do not. Here are the first few lines. You can look it up and decide for yourself.
Have They Run Out of Provinces Yet?, Calvin Trillin, The New Yorker, April 4, 2016.
“Have they run out of provinces yet?
If they haven’t, we’ve reason to fret.
Long ago, there was just Cantonese.
(Long ago, we were easy to please.)
But then food from Szechuan came our way,
Making Cantonese strictly passé.
Szechuanese was the song that we sung,
Though the ma po could burn through your tongue.
Then when Shanghainese got in the loop
We slurped dumplings whose insides were soup.”
etc.
(See: “Calvin Trillin’s Poem on Chinese Food is Unpalatable to Some” The New York TImes, April 7, 2016.)
For a completely unrelated incident (except for its ludicrousness) consider the episode involving Gay Talese which happened around the same time as Trillin was being attacked. After he gave a talk at Boston College, a member of the audience asked him about what women authors had influenced him. Apparently he struggled to come up with an answer (the guy is a dapper dresser, but he is 84) and was immediately set upon by the twitter twits. I am pleased to report, however, that at least one woman came to his defense:
“He read what he read. The policing of inspiration and influence is really pathological. I believe it to be a feeding frenzy and sign of a debased discourse that passes for Internet culture. This is blood sport.” Katie Roiphe. (See: “Gay Talese Goes Through Twitter Wringer”, The New York Times, April 6).
Be Careful What You Sing
It is interesting, and an indicator of our troubled times, that politicians, both in my adopted country and the ones back in Maryland where I grew up, had to be mustered to re-consider the lyrics of their respective anthems. In Canada, Oh Canada, I am pleased to report, has been rendered gender neutral (from "true patriot love, in all thy sons command" was changed to "in all of us command,"). The spectacle was rather a sad one since the MP who introduced Bill C-210 was wheeled into the House although suffering from ALS.
In Maryland, many more lyrics were involved and the excision needed to be much more extensive; some want the entire song to be abandoned. The issue in this case was about race not gender. You would recognize the tune of “Maryland, My Maryland”("O Tannenbaum,"), but the lyrics which include such phrases as “Northern Scum” may be unfamiliar to you. They are based a poem by James Ryder Randall and you can look them up. I am not sure if this dispute has been completely resolved, but it is clear that the words of the anthem which were adopted in 1939 are not appropriate now.
NAMES
No More Name Calling
We move now from Words to Names, specifically personal ones, and the volume of my notes indicate that I should have started working on this subject well before my self-imposed midnight deadline. I will highlight just the most sensational cases and from them you should learn that you should not name anything after a person - especially not buildings on campuses.
I will present here just some of the cases and you can rank them in terms of egregiousness. I will leave it up to you whether you apply the word “egregious” to the historical ‘crime’ being addressed or to the current protest.
Woodrow Wilson at Princeton
You will be aware of this example which involves no less a personage than a President of Princeton who also held the less exalted position of POTUS. The students at Princeton ( and I am sure all students everywhere else) want the name “Woodrow Wilson” removed from everything since he was a racist. In addition, here are a few of their other demands (which are even more Orwellian):
“cultural competency training for the faculty and the staff; the inclusion in Princeton’s core curriculum requirements of a course on the history of a marginalized people; and the creation of a cultural space on campus dedicated to black students.”
I am not sure if CANCON rules apply to blogs, but if so this Canadian aside should cover me. Very recently at Ryerson University there was an incident that shows we also have a racist problem here (and as I suggested with the word ‘egregious’ above, use the word ‘problem’ where you think it applies). A black female was giving a speech at the School of Social Work when the Director committed the “violent act” of walking out of the room. It is not clear why he left the room , but he has resigned as the Director. One hates to rush to judgement, but to me it seems more likely that he had to pee than it is likely that someone who has risen to the directorship of a School of Social Work would be either a racist or misogynist.
John C. Calhoun at Yale
You are probably also aware of this incident since it generated quite a bit of news and commentary. In 1933 Yale University made the mistake of naming one of its residential colleges after Calhoun. Since Calhoun was a slave owner, not much more needs to be said. At this time ‘Calhoun College’ still stands although a committee is constructing a policy guide that will outline renaming rules. As I write, task forces on campuses everywhere are working to resolve these issues. If rules against plagiarism were not so strict at such places they could simply copy the new policy from the University of Oregon which allows for the renaming of buildings which were named after anyone “who demonstrated “discriminatory, racist, homophobic, or misogynist views that actively promoted systemic oppression” or who “failed to take redemptive action,” among other expansive criteria.”
Lord Jeffery Amherst at Amherst
Amherst College is named for the town in which it exists, but since the town was named for Lord Jeffery the college is guilty by association. Lord Jeffery himself is guilty of treating the indigenous residents rather harshly and may even have suggested providing them with smallpox-infected blankets. Hence, the mascot Lord Jeff has been banned and the words “Lord Jeffery” have disappeared from campus. What surely was seemingly the most innocent sport’s team name in the NCAA - “The Jeffs” - has been erased. While the student protests were successful, apparently some alumni were not happy.
As another Canadian aside I will note that Lord Jeffery’s legacy is under attack up here. There is a park on Prince Edward Island that is named after him and Environment Minister Catherine McKenna has received a letter asking that it be renamed since "His name is a grave insult to the Mi'kmaq people of Prince Edward Island, the Atlantic region and to the rest of the aboriginal people in Canada.”
A Bunch of Guys at Georgetown University
The names that could be named at Georgetown are potentially more numerous since the Jesuit founders of that institution sold a bunch of their slaves to pay off some of the university debt. Two buildings so far have been temporarily renamed - Mulledy Hall is now Freedom Hall and McSherry Hall is now Remembrance Hall - and a “Working Group on Slavery, Memory and Reconciliation” is no doubt working hard to sort things out.
Do Larger Problems Loom?
So far we have discussed names and renaming in relation to buildings on campuses and I could go on. For example, just across the border from the District of Corruption they have renamed the stadium at the University of Maryland. Formerly ‘Byrd Stadium’, it is now temporarily called ‘Maryland Stadium’. Apparently old ‘Curley Byrd’ no longer meets the naming standards, even for stadiums, since he was a segregationist. There may be some irony here since one suspects that the stadium itself remains segregated, in that it is highly likely the team is largely black while the seats are occupied by the mainly white.
The larger issue relates to the complete university not just the structures on the campus. What if the name applied to the entire university is tainted? I feel that it is my duty to alert you to some possible problems. In short, you would short the following colleges and universities if they were stocks or securities. The alphabetical list by institution includes the name of the person along with the alleged ‘crime’.
Alcorn State (James L. He was a Confederate. Alcorn is largely black!)
Austin Peay (Austin Peay. Like Jefferson, fathered a black child.)
Clemson ( Thomas Green. Married Calhoun’s daughter - see Yale above.)
Drake (Francis Marion. Killed a few Pawnees.)
Duke ( James Buchanan. Tobacco.)
Furman (Richard. The slave thing.)
George Mason (George Mason. The slave thing. See my related post - ASSOL)
Hofstra (William S. Lumber business - open to the charge of despoliation.)
Lamar ( Mirabeau Buonaparte. Slave trader AND Cherokee/Comanche killer.)
Marshall (John. His papers are online at the UVA. Find the problem yourself.)
Rice (William Marsh. Guy was a capitalist and died a rather messy death.)
Stanford (Leland Jr. The son of a robber baron.)
Tulane (Paul. Confederate donor.)
Vanderbilt (Cornelius. Rich - “unmannered brute.”)
Yale (Elihu. Corruption charges. Elis may become as rare as Jeffs.)
Many colleges in the U.S. were founded by religious leaders and those named for such figures may be assumed to be safe from onomastic scrutiny (Wesleyan, for example) or maybe not (Oral Roberts). Otherwise if you are sending your sons or daughters off to college and you want them to have a ‘safe space’ , then perhaps you should consider a plainly-named land-grant university like the University of Iowa where the students are also likely to be less flighty.
As far as Canada goes, less work is required if you are trying to choose or avoid a university because of its name. Select one with a geographically-based name like ‘Toronto’, or ‘Western’ which could exist anywhere and is surely not offensive. You could simply avoid any college that is named for a person unless she is Emily Carr. In the east, for example, I would not choose Dalhousie without thoroughly vetting the Earl. In the far west the choice is easy. Go to UBC. It is clear that you should avoid Simon Fraser which will likely be attacked in the near future for reasons that are obvious.
I know I said I would keep this short, but I have failed and am still going. But, as an aside to the aside above I can’t help but wonder about what happened to Sir George Williams University in Montreal. Was it erased because Sir George was guilty of something? I recall a riot there and the takeover of the Henry F. Hall building. Was it because of the name of the building? I seem to remember that it had something to do with racism (see Ryerson above). I will leave it to you to sort this all out while I move on.
Do Even Larger Problems Loom?
Certainly. It is highly likely that this contagion will spread from university campuses to town commons. I have already mentioned Amherst and there are many other cities and towns named after people whose reputations are now dubious. If all of them are removed then we will have difficulty using our GPS. Until then perhaps a new kind of TripAdvisor will be required to let us know more about name origins if we are to avoid places named after culprits. For example, it could help us answer the question: should we visit Prince Rupert (either one of them)? We are also likely to have to rename places already re-named. You can still visit the hamlet Swastika, Ontario, but there is no Berlin in the province. It was renamed Kitchener. Wasn’t Lord Kitchener associated with the Empire? (on the other hand, he may have been a homosexual which should more than offset the other charge).
I do have to now consider the statue issue. If you want to read a very good book on applied toponymy see this one and start your new year off with a bit of self-improvement: From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow: How Maps Name, Claim, and Inflame, by Mark Monmonier - U. of Chicago Press.
Statues
Although they generally just sit or stand there silently they can still be problematic, even in Canada. You may recall that there was quite the kerfuffle on the campus of Wilfrid Laurier when it was suggested that 22 statues be erected, one for each Canadian Prime Minister. Although the University is named for one, the project was rejected on the grounds that the ground on which they would stand belongs to indigenous people who would be offended. As well, most of the PMs are the North American equivalent of DWEMs and they certainly no longer serve as role models at a place that is inclusionary and diverse. For those who care, it was recently announced that they have found a home at Castle Kilbride in Baden. Whether it will be a ‘safe space’ for them remains to be seen.
You may recall that I mentioned above that there was a controversy about Lord Amherst in P.E.I. There was a similar one in Nova Scotia over the statue of Cornwallis. The gist of the matter will be obvious from this news report: There was a “flare-up in Nova Scotia in December over a statue of Edward Cornwallis in a Halifax park. A plaque notes that Cornwallis founded the city in the 1700s but fails to mention a scalping proclamation he offered against the Mi'kmaq. It promised "a reward of ten Guineas for every Indian Micmac taken or killed, to be paid upon producing such Savage taken or his scalp." I have not bothered to see if he is still around.
Elsewhere there was the “Rhodes Must Fall” campaign that spread from South Africa to the entrance of Oxford’s Oriel College. Some were irritated that the leader of the protesters who insisted that Cecil had to go was Ntokozo Qwabe who was attending Oxford on, you guessed it, a Rhodes Scholarship. He told the BBC he felt “the same way [about the Rhodes statue as] I would feel if I saw a statue of Hitler in Germany”. And Tadiwa Madenga, a Zimbabwean student at Oxford, said the statue reminded her of the struggles her family had had in colonial Rhodesia. “We’ve lived in places where we’ve seen the consequences [of colonialism] and it still deeply affects us, this kind of memory of British imperialism.” At this time, Cecil is still standing.
What Is To Be Done?
I will attempt to offer some solutions and suggestions so that the coming year might be more peaceful.
Some Solutions:
Words:
I will begin by admitting that there is not much one can do about the problems with WORDS; there are simply too many of them. Just remember the advice I offered above - Be Careful About What You Say or Sing.
Names:
There are also a lot of NAMES and many are problematic. I have already offered the best solution which is not to name anything after a person. Since that advice will not be welcomed in development offices on campuses, I suggest you at least be cautious. For example, at Wake Forest where a new dorm is going to be named in honour (honor down there) of Maya Angelou they could consider temporarily calling it “The Bird Cage” to see if this clever allusion creates any controversy (if any Deacs happen to read this, feel free to use that appellation without acknowledging me).
You saw the enormity of the issue involving Place Names and I only mentioned cities and towns. What about the problems involving street names! If you insist on proceeding, start locally and then move across the globe. I am willing to help. I grew up in the town named “Princess Anne” in Maryland. I can do some checking and see if she remains suitable. If not, I even have a solution. The town could be re-named “Simpkinsville” in honour (honor down there) of Lloyd “Hot Dog” Simpkins. He served in the navy, was a judge and the Secretary of State and was generally well-loved unless you appeared before him in court. On the other hand, replacing a feminine name with a masculine one probably won’t work.
Perhaps we could put aside the Place Name Project. Some will disappear of natural attrition. In California, for example, they are arguing about whether the word “India” should be used in textbooks, a distressing development for those of us still searching for Ceylon. So it might be better to begin by tackling a smaller subject.
The ELIMINATION OF EPONYMS. This could work and a start could be made with those found in medicine since they are typically misogynistic. Do we really need, Alzheimer’s, Hodgkin’s, Parkinson’s or Down’s? Is it right that an Italian male exercises hegemony over the nether regions of the female anatomy (Fallopian)? Again, attrition is on your side since the DSM has already purged Asperger’s.
Set up MONIKER MONITORS. I am not sure how this would work.
REFUSE THOSE PRIZES. Don’t accept a Pulitzer or a Pritzker. Follow Dylan’s example of rejecting the Nobel (the dynamite guy).
Statues:
The statue problems could be solved by placing a Statute of Limitations on the Elimination of Statues. All statues. While you probably felt happy to see Saddam toppled and would be glad to see Cornwallis fall, you might not have felt so pleased when you saw all the statuary rubble left behind by ISIS and the Taliban. As well, it might be a good idea to place a moratorium on the construction of any new statues, since the hero of today may be regarded as a schmuck by Friday.
Some Suggestions:
Consider Events and People in Context
Perhaps a start could be made by considering this quotation which comes from The Whig Interpretation of History: “The dispensing of moral judgments upon people or upon actions in retrospect,” wrote Butterfield, is the “most useless and unproductive of all forms of reflection.”
Remember that the Past is Unpredictable
A short example should suffice: Suppose you want to ease the racial tensions at Ryerson by renaming the School of Social Work the “Toussaint Louverture School of Social Work”, thus placating the blacks and pleasing the French. It would be a bad idea, however, since it is now claimed that old Toussaint apparently possessed some slaves of his own.
Get Over It
Are we to be guilty forever? Consider these words from The Tyranny of Guilt:
“Fascism, communism, genocide, slavery, racism, imperialism--the West has no shortage of reasons for guilt. And, indeed, since the Holocaust and the end of World War II, Europeans in particular have been consumed by remorse. But Pascal Bruckner argues that guilt has now gone too far. It has become a pathology, and even an obstacle to fighting today's atrocities. Bruckner, one of France's leading writers and public intellectuals, argues that obsessive guilt has obscured important realities. The West has no monopoly on evil, and has destroyed monsters as well as created them--leading in the abolition of slavery, renouncing colonialism, building peaceful and prosperous communities, and establishing rules and institutions that are models for the world. The West should be proud--and ready to defend itself and its values.
Or Forget About It
Let’s face it the constant the emphasis on remembrance has not led to much in the way of reconciliation. Apparently this book discusses such things and I look forward to reading it in the new year. Have a good one.
“In Praise of Forgetting is about our collective memories: how we remember our national histories and argue about our shared past. Rieff contends that these collective remembrances are self-serving, often fraudulent and frequently dangerous. Sometimes, he thinks, we would be better off simply forgetting the grudge-filled chronicles and getting on with living our lives. He admires the suggestion of a Northern Irish writer that the next memorial to Irish history should be “raising a monument to Amnesia, and forgetting where we put it.”
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