Ron Gonzales: Worrying over school names wasteful, meaningless
Re “Fort Bragg may get anti-Rebel reprieve” (Page A6, July 9): State Senate Bill 539, introduced by Sen. Steve Glazer, D-Orinda, is another perfect example of a new politician jumping on the flavor-of-the-month bandwagon by trying to pass wasteful, meaningless law.
He wants to ban the names of all Confederate political and military figures from California buildings, parks, schools and public facilities. Mainly, he wants two public schools in southern California named after Gen. Robert E. Lee renamed. Sen. Glazer represents Orinda (pop. 18,681). This is how the Civil War started in the first place, the north trying to make changes in the south.
Who pays for the costs associated with such name changes? The bill doesn’t say. We have bigger problems to deal with, but instead we focus on events that ended 150 years ago.
Like all Americans, I am saddened by the events in Charleston, S.C. By the time you read this, the confederate battle flag will have been taken down there. But where do we stop? They should not be banned in Confederate cemeteries. Do we ban civil war re-enactments? We still have 10 American military bases named after Confederates and the Pentagon has stated that there are no plans to change the names.
Ron Gonzales, Atwater
This story was originally published July 13, 2015 at 3:16 PM with the headline "Ron Gonzales: Worrying over school names wasteful, meaningless."