Letters to the Editor: Letters to the Editor: Number Burbank’s schools so naming controversies can be avoided
When I was in the sixth grade I lived in New York City and attended Public School #41. Maybe that’s an idea the Burbank school board should consider, inasmuch as naming any school after any particular person might offend someone.
Regarding David Starr Jordan and his connection with eugenics, it turns out that quite a number of well-known people supported eugenics in one form or another. Going online I found the following: Theodore Roosevelt, Alexander Graham Bell, Helen Keller, Winston Churchill, Margaret Sanger (founder of Planned Parenthood), W.E.B. DuBois (black historian, sociologist, co-founder of the NAACP), Clarence Darrow, George Bernard Shaw, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jacques Cousteau, John Maynard Keynes (economist), Linus Pauling and Greek Philosopher Plato. There are others listed and, perhaps significantly, the name of David Starr Jordan is not among them.
In any event, it seems that virtually everyone, no matter their accomplishments, will have something in their background that others find offensive. So maybe just going to numbered schools would avoid that, except that someone would likely find a particular number objectionable!
David Lessley
Burbank
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I propose a name change from David Starr Jordan Middle School to Amelia Earhart Middle School. She lived in the area and last flew out of Lockheed airport in one of their planes. An American hero.
Michael Frediani
Burbank
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The Burbank Interfaith Forum strongly condemns the heinous massacre of Christians and others in Sri Lanka on Easter Morning. This tragic violence violates the basic tenets of every religion in the world. Our guiding principles call upon us to respect the integrity of all religions and ensure that they have the freedom to follow their own beliefs and practices. The world must turn to peace, tolerance, diversity and human rights to ensure the future of humanity.
David Meyerhof
Chairperson, Burbank Interfaith Forum
Burbank