A Rose by Any Other Name

Recently in the Boston area, there have been two separate occasions where the PC crowd has not gone far enough. In the interest of equality for all and not hurting the feelings of any, we must take this to the next step.

I am referring to the two recent name changes to locations in the Boston area, one the renaming of Yawkey Way and the other the renaming of Edward Devotion School in Brookline. Thomas Yawkey was the owner of the Boston Red Sox for many years, was a philanthropist starting the Jimmy Fund and donating to other charitable organization, and he was a racist. His good work has been forgotten and replaced by his racism. Edward Devotion bequeathed the land the school was built on, but he was also a slave owner.

The PC crowd in their fight to include everyone and not offend anyone has decided these changes must be made. We also see there was a rally held in Boston yesterday petitioning Mayor Marty Walsh to change the name of Fanuiel Hall in Boston because Peter Fanuiel was a slave trader who used these funds to build the hall. Excellent work except…

they are not going far enough. How about changing the names of anything with the name Robert Byrd attached to it? Byrd was the longtime senator from West Virginia who also happened to be a high ranking member of the Ku Klux Klan. Wait, he apologized for that and all was forgiven, and he even became a champion of the Civil Rights Act. I guess leopards can change their spots.

Well, how about anything named after John F. Kennedy. I find it rather offensive that he was a serial adulterer which was against the teaching of the Catholic faith to which he belonged. How about how much of the Kennedy money came from bootlegging and other illegal activities? We don’t hear much about the way the family patriarch treated his daughter Rosemary, ordering her doctors to give her a lobotomy because she was a “retard” (his words not mine). At least his daughter Eunice made up for this action by becoming the leading activist for equal rights for all those with various handicaps, both physical and mental.

Last, but certainly not least the biggest change of all should be changing anything named after our first president, George Washington. He, like Edward Devotion, was also a slave owner, owning over 100 slaves. Renaming Washington DC would send a definite message to the rest of the world that we are all-inclusive.

I do wonder however if the PC police understand that by including everyone and making everyone feel good actually excludes others? When everyone gets a trophy how will that make those who truly worked hard to win, whether in sports, academics or business, feel? Look at someone like Tom Brady (who in this area at least is right up there with God), do you think he would have become the best quarterback in the NFL had he been told not to show up the others on his Pop Warner team? Would he be where he is if he hadn’t been pushed and instead was told: “Stop running so fast Tom, you are making the other kids feel bad”?

Yes, racism and bigotry are wrong, but so isn’t changing the very history that made this country the greatest in the world, even though some would like us to think otherwise. By the way, isn’t it time to rename the “White House”?

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