Thursday, June 16, 2011

If we change Lake Calhoun's name, then…

we have to change the names of thousands of other places.

Once again someone is calling for changing the name of Lake Calhoun in Minneapolis because John C. Calhoun, for whom it was named, was proslavery.

If we do this then we must change the names of everything named for George Washington and Thomas Jefferson; after all, they both owned hundreds of slaves.

Even the Great Emancipator, Abraham Lincoln, waffled on the issue.  He said slavery should be abolished in the District of Columbia, but only if the people wanted it.  He would say in an election speech in northern Illinois that "all men are created equal" and say later in southern Illinois that "… I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of of bringing about the social and political equality of the white and black races".  See "A People's History of the United States", Howard Zinn, page 188.  Honest Abe?