This column launches headlong into an important and controversial subject.
One that is red hot now, as it should be.
The subject is the removal of symbols, statuary, memorials, flags, street names and many other “honoraries” to people whose principles and deeds in their time have grown to become offensive in our time.
We are making a mistake to simply take these memorials out of harm’s way. There needs to be a plan to place the statues in a museum that explains to future generations how our democracy nearly broke up over the issues that these statues commemorate, so that we can learn from the mistakes of the past.
To obliterate history is to enhance the probability of repeating our mistakes.
The Board of Trustees of prestigious Ivy League Princeton University just decided to remove President Woodrow Wilson’s name from its School of Public and International Affairs, and a residence hall.
Wilson had been the President of Princeton, the Governor of New Jersey where it is located and the two-term 28th President of the United States. He was accused of “racist thinking and policies,” which made him an “inappropriate namesake.”
Let’s acknowledge that his administration should have done a better job of controlling a racist U.S. Civil Service Commission. The agency’s director should have been fired and better treatment of African-Americans in government should have been a priority. Of this, there is no question.
The real question is why do we go to college? To learn the good, the bad and the ugly. To be able to discern good from evil. Princeton’s Board – comprised of entirely Princeton graduates – seems to have forgotten that its students should be allowed to decide what kind of leader Wilson was.
Wilson was the President who led us through World War I. He pushed hard to establish the League of Nations, which might have helped to avoid World War II if it had not been killed by the Senate. He negotiated the Treaty of Versailles, which ended the war. For this he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. He appointed Louis Brandeis to the Supreme Court and he oversaw the creation of the Federal Reserve Act – which established the U.S. Central Bank, the bulwark of protecting monetary policy from political interference.
In balance, his accomplishments greatly exceed his weaknesses. You can say the same for John D. Rockefeller, Henry Ford, Charles Lindbergh, Andrew Carnegie, Joseph Kennedy and many others. They all had character flaws and none were perfect. We need to understand their mistakes and applaud their philanthropic generosity.
To erase Wilson’s name from a university he served with distinction and an institution that trains future government leaders for the entire world just goes too far.
It is political correctness gone wild.
Appeasement is not progress. It is a momentary victory for the aggrieved. It allows the history police to say “we hear you,” but it does not solve problems and set new paradigms for future respectful relations between the races.
My 10-year-old granddaughter Claire wanted to read this column. She had great wisdom when she said, “I don’t understand why they want to erase Wilson’s name and no one wants to take those other names away.”
Maybe she should be on the board of Princeton.
Roger Carlton is a columnist for The Graham Star. He is a council member for the Town of Lake Santeetlah.