[American Conservative] Happy Fourth of July! Falls Church in Northern Virginia just renamed two public schools, George Mason High School and Thomas Jefferson Elementary, to cancel the men who gave us this day.
The namesake George Mason was a Founder, a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, and author of the Virginia Declaration of Rights, the basis for the Bill of Rights. Nearby George Mason University is still named after him, but Falls Church is stripping his name from its schools because in addition to all he did to create the United States, he was a slaveholder. Same for Thomas Jefferson, Founder, principal author of the Declaration of Independence, first secretary of State, third president of the United States, and famously, rapist and slaveholder, Joker without the makeup.
The people of Falls Church who made these changes probably mean well in a 2021-ish kind of way. The city is 72 percent white (and only 4.5 percent black.) An amazing 78 percent of adults in Falls Church have a bachelor’s degree or higher, and most work for the Federal government in nearby Washington, D.C. (George Washington and six other presidents held slaves.) The city has an energetic farmer’s market with a proposal pending to add an "informational booth about how communities of color have less access to healthy foods" and votes solidly Democrat.
Continued from Page 4
|
