School Names

Hooray for kids! On the same day that the mayors of San Francisco and Oakland are berating the decision to suspend an NBA player for attacking his coach as racist, the four young people who are quoted in Voices (Dec. 6) are not allowing themselves to be used to manufacture another race issue.

The students attend high schools named in honor of two of our country’s Founding Fathers who happened to be slave owners. However, they refute the idea that their school names should be changed for that reason. In their own ways, they say that they are proud of their schools for different reasons and don’t feel that the atrocity of slave ownership--common at that time--is reason to erase names of former leaders of our country.

These young people aren’t ignorant of history nor uncaring about race issues in our country--but maybe they have a better perspective than some of our current leaders who still seek to use race to further their own political agendas.

FORREST SHATTUCK

Orange