Who Shall Remain Nameless: Al Hanzal and Democracy in Action
I grew up in the West End of Saint Paul, Minnesota in the 1940s and ’50s. Back then, the West End—it was also called West 7th Street–was a solid, upstanding, church-going, white working-class community. All of us went to Monroe High School (named for James Monroe, the fifth U.S. president, 1817-1825), grades 9-12, on Palace Avenue, we could walk there. We were assigned to go to Monroe because we lived in the neighborhood, but we didn’t think about it; Monroe was our school. Green and white, the school colors. The school teams were called the Green Wave. I still remember most of the Monroe fight song:
We love you dear old school of Monroe,
We’ll be true to you.
And all the things that you do stand for,
We will fight for you. (rah, rah, rah)
We will aim for victory,
In our every deed.
The last two lines of the song include “. . . Monroe, / Always in the lead.” but the whole of them is lost to memory.
Monroe High School
I left the West End when I graduated from Monroe and enlisted in the army. I’ve lived for decades in the state of Vermont.
Monroe High School hasn’t existed since 1977. In 2008, two schools merged to form Linwood Monroe Arts Plus: Monroe Community School, an elementary school, which was housed in the old Monroe High School building, and Linwood A+ Elementary in the Summit Hill area of the city, about a mile from the West End. Linwood-Monroe, as it is commonly called, with its two campuses a mile apart, is a pre-kindergarten-through-grade 8 (children aged three to thirteen) magnet school. A magnet school specializes in some academic area—in this case, the arts—and enrolls students from throughout the school district who choose to attend; it isn’t a neighborhood school. Unlike the old Monroe High School, which was totally white, Linwood-Monroe is racially diverse: 30% white, 30% black, 25% Asian, primarily Hmong from Southeast Asia; and 15% Hispanic.
Last year, 2018, a Linwood-Monroe parent brought his concern about the Monroe part of the school’s name to the school’s Parent-Teacher Organization. James Monroe, he offered, isn’t the kind of person the school ought to be named after. The PTO co-chair sided with the parent: “It’s a critically important issue that James Monroe was a slave owner, and that doesn’t reflect the kids that go to Linwood-Monroe in the slightest.” The PTO membership agreed that the Monroe name should go, as did the school’s principal, Bryan Bass, who incidentally, or not incidentally, is black, and the school leadership team. (Linwood derives from the Old English word for lime tree.)
These days, name changes are getting to be common practice in the Twin Cities, Minneapolis and Saint Paul. The old (Daniel) Webster Elementary is now Barack and Michelle Obama Elementary. Patrick Henry High School’s Principal Yusuf Abdullah is heading up a group looking into changing that school’s name. I went swimming in Lake Calhoun (John C.). Now it’s Lake Bde Maka Ska, a Dakota Indian name. Alexander Ramsey Elementary is no more. Ramsey was Minnesota’s second governor from 1860 to 1863. In response to attacks by the Sioux Indian tribe in 1862 resulting in the deaths of 800 white settlers, Ramsey declared, “The Sioux Indians of Minnesota must be exterminated or driven forever beyond the borders of the state!” The school is now named Justice Alan Page Middle School after Minnesota’s first black state supreme court justice. Page first gained renown as one of the “Purple People Eaters,” a supremely talented defensive line of the Minnesota Vikings team in the National Football League.
Given the current trend, the Linwood-Monroe name change looked to me like a done deal. But not so fast. On to the scene comes Al Hanzal, a 1960 Monroe High School graduate (I didn’t know him back then) and former Assistant Commissioner of Human Services in Minnesota, who opposed the name change.
Al Hanzal
Excerpts from an email Al sent around:
Because the 5th President, of the United States, James Monroe, owned slaves, a small group wants the name [of Linwood Monroe Arts Plus] changed. This may have become a reality. Except, a group of Monroe alumni has risen up and said, “Wait a minute School Board, you are losing more than you are gaining with a name change.”
The Monroe and West 7th Street community has a rich and strong tradition in the city of St. Paul. This blue-collar community traces our roots back to immigrant groups, from the Italians on the lower levee, to Germans, a vibrant Czech community, Irish and other nationalities. After World War II, with the baby-boomers, thousands graduated from Monroe and became part of the Monroe and West 7th Street tradition. . . .
Over these many years, community volunteerism from such programs as the West 7th Street Boys Club and the Monroe annual alumni meetings have sponsored programs and efforts to deal with those most in need in the community. Few other communities in St. Paul can boast of such community involvement. These efforts continue today.
Some have tried to paint this as a racial question. It is not. Those of us who went to Monroe never really ever knew of James Monroe’s history. To us, it was always just “Monroe,” our community school with its rich cultural tradition. [I thought it was MONroe, and so help me, it just now hit me why the yearbook was called the Doctrine.]
The Monroe Alumni are not just trying to preserve the past. We recognize the wonderful richness, tradition, and culture that is associated with the Monroe name. This thread, woven through time and by tradition, forms a strong fabric into which the Monroe school is deeply meshed. For generations, it has been the heart of our West End community. We desire nothing more than to see that thread continue weaving and growing in our community fabric. We openly welcome all new individuals, ideas and concepts to further that continued growth. Erasing history and tradition will do nothing to move the community forward.
In no time, Al got 700 Monroe alumni and West Enders to sign an online petition to keep the name. Full disclosure: I signed Al’s petition, giving it little thought, I must admit.
Al put together a group that has variously called itself the Monroe Alumni, the Monroe Community, and the Monroe Steering Committee. I emailed Al, and he informed me that the group includes a pastor and business owner from the West 7th area, a former Monroe teacher, a community organizer, the president of the West 7th Street Boys Club, and several other Monroe alumni. Al and his group have been tireless in their opposition to the name change, sending out mass emails, which I as a petition-signer receive, holding and attending meetings, and corresponding with school board members. Their efforts have received local press coverage.
At this writing (June, 2019), the Linwood-Monroe name change hasn’t gone through. The last mass email I received from Al, speaking for, in this instance, The Monroe Steering Committee, was on June 11th, 2019. I’ve done a lot of editing in the interest of making it more concise, but I think I’ve captured the gist of Al’s message:
The Monroe Community’s yearlong effort to keep the Monroe name part of the West 7th Community comes down to one school board meeting! On Tuesday, June 18th, the Board will vote on whether to accept a new school name. We will attend the meeting and ask the Board to suspend its vote and reopen the school naming process in order to conform with its school-naming policy, which requires community and school alumni input in the process.
Under the direction of Dr. Bass, the school leadership has not followed board policy. While his letter to parents in May of 2018 promised to include community and alumni in meetings pertaining to this matter, he has not done so. Monroe Community repeatedly asked to be included in the process. We were told, “We do not need any input from old white racists.” The administration at Linwood-Monroe Arts Plus has not only failed to adhere to policy, it has demonstrated disrespect for our history, traditions, and culture.
Therefore, we ask the School Board to hold off on any decision regarding the Monroe name change in order to allow for members of the community to be legitimately and respectfully included in the name-change process.
Please attend the St. Paul School Board meeting on Tuesday, June 18th, at 5:30, at [the address]. We need you there! Your presence can make a difference. If you have something green, wear it. Bring friends and family. Connect with old Monroe friends. Based on comments from several board members, we believe we have a chance to influence the process. This is democracy in action.
* * *
It’s early in the morning on a Friday, June 14th, four days from the school board’s meeting, and I just finished breakfast and am drinking a cup of coffee. What are my thoughts about this name change business?
The first thing that comes to me is a question: What exactly is at stake for Al and his group with this Linwood-Monroe name change? It’s not as if Linwood-Monroe is a community school like the old Monroe High School and Monroe Community School were. Linwood-Monroe is partly in the West End—one of its two campuses is in the Summit Hill area—but it’s certainly not of the West End. It’s a specialized pre-K/elementary school that draws students from throughout the Saint Paul school district–the entire city–who opt to go there; they aren’t assigned to go there because they live in the neighborhood. The material Al put out talked about recognizing “the wonderful richness, tradition and culture associated with the Monroe name” and desiring to “see that thread continue weaving and growing in our community fabric.” Linwood-Monroe does that, or could do that? Really?
Even more fundamentally, I ask myself, is Al and his group trying to continue a community and way of life that has been largely or completely displaced? I’m way out here in Vermont, 1,500 miles away, but when I read articles online from the Saint Paul newspaper like “A St. Paul Neighborhood Invaded by Guns, Drugs, and Swat Teams,” it causes me to wonder.
The SWAT teams and the FBI and the police plugged up the 900 block on Palace Avenue [Monroe is at 810 Palace Avenue] on a Tuesday night in the spring in the city of Saint Paul, and then they started coming through Mike Barott’s yard. They were on a fast pace with their rifles held shoulder-high as they streamed around Barott’s grill and picnic table, through the trees and yard ornaments and then into the alley.
Enforcers from a Mexican drug cartel reportedly had been in the house just three doors from Barott and they had been shaking down, violently, two teenagers whom the cartel suspected of stealing methamphetamine and as much as $200,000 in cash.
I don’t remember SWAT teams and Mexican drug cartels a block away from the high school in the old days.
Al says, “Some have tried to paint this as a racial question. It is not.” I ask myself: Do Al’s opponents know something that has gotten by Al, that this most certainly is a racial question, that these name changes are indeed racially motivated? Saint Paul’s racial demographics have changed significantly in the half-century since Al’s and my youth. It’s too simple to say demographics is destiny, but often you can accurately predict what’s going to happen somewhere by deducing from demographic data. Since 1990, the Asian and black population in Minnesota has tripled and the Hispanic population has quadrupled. In 1970, whites were 95% of the population of Saint Paul; now they are a bit less than 50%.
Some background:
Through the efforts of private organizations known as VOLAGs (VOLuntary AGency), Hmong people from Southeast Asia in large numbers settled in the Twin Cities. The 2010 census showed there were 66,000 Hmong in Minneapolis-St. Paul, making it the largest urban Hmong population in the world. It is the cultural and socio-political center of Hmong life in the United States.
VOLAGs also sponsored people from Somalia in East Africa to move to the Twin Cities. As of 2016, there were 74,000 Somalis in the area, making it the largest Somali diaspora in the United States. Somalis who came here assist other Somalis to come. When I was growing up, the U.S. Representative from Minnesota’s Fifth District, Minneapolis, was Walter Judd and now it is Somali immigrant, Ilhan Omar.
Blacks and Hispanics simply came to the area when they chose to.
Whether or not they are properly enforced, the nation has immigration laws and restrictions. States and communities don’t. People in them have accepted the idea that anybody can come at any time and that who lives alongside of them and their families is none of their business. It’s VOLAGs’ and the migrators’ business, not theirs.
One of the activities of Al’s group was to circulate what it labeled Facts About President James Monroe to make the point that Monroe had a lot to recommend him and was more than just a slave owner:
- He was a combat veteran, wounded in the American Revolutionary war at the battle of Trenton.
- He served as a delegate to the Continental Congress and Declaration of Independence. While he was not a strong proponent of slavery, he knew it could not be abolished at the time of the Declaration of Independence because southern states would have left the fragile union of states.
- As a diplomat to France, he helped secure the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 that opened up vast territories for American expansion, including Minnesota.
- He was the author behind the Monroe Doctrine in 1823 that forbid European countries from establishing colonies on United States soil.
- Monroe supported the founding of colonies in Africa for freed slaves. This eventually led to the formation of the nation of Liberia, whose capital, Monrovia, is named after our fifth President.
But the issue on the table isn’t whether Monroe was a laudable political figure. The issue is whether a school ought to be named for someone who enslaved black people. If you are going to argue for keeping the Monroe name, you need to take on this question.
And don’t ask me to do it. If I were black, I’d rather go to Barack and Michelle Obama Elementary than Webster Elementary. If I were a black parent of children at Linwood-Monroe, I wouldn’t want them going to a school named after somebody who bought and sold my ancestors. It’s hit me that I jumped too quickly to sign Al’s petition. This issue has more than one arguable side to it.
It’s not that the Linwood-Monroe name changers haven’t thought it through and that with more information about the good white folks on West 7th Street and President James Monroe’s virtues they’ll see the light. They’ve very much seen their light, it shines bright to them, and that’s to get free and clear of racist white America.
An article I wrote almost three years ago comes to mind in which I wrote, “The answer to the current state of black-white relations for white people in our time? Exit.” I still hold to it as a basic orientation: Back off. Quit trying to work anything out around race. Relate to you own and let the rest of them go their own way. I personally have no energy to give to this name change issue. What I’d be up for if I had children at Linwood-Monroe or whatever the school will be called, is checking out what’s going on in the school, and if it’s the anti-white, anti-American indoctrination that I suspect is going on, getting them out of the school. And I’d be up for giving serious consideration to getting out of Saint Paul, moving some other place in Minnesota or to North or South Dakota. Sometimes in life, you just need to get away from the poison.
I made a second cup of morning coffee and decided to write an email to the only Monroe classmate I’ve stayed in touch with over the years. I know he’s big on opposing the Linwood-Monroe name change and I felt the impulse to let him know what I’ve been thinking about this morning. The email I wrote included this:
If I were at the school board meeting coming up, I’d be urging them to get Monroe off the school name as fast as possible. As far as I’m concerned, name the school for Al Sharpton, anybody. Let Monroe High School exist in history for what it was, God bless it.
I’ve decided not to send the message. I anticipate the non-response it seems I always get to anything I express that doesn’t square with people’s take on things and I don’t want to go through it with my old school buddy: “Thanks for sharing your thoughts. We’re seeing how many people we can get to the school board meeting on the 18th. We’ve got to get the board to postpone the vote.”
It looks to me that given the currently accepted gospel preached by the media and universities and then sermonized in the lower level schools—American history is a chronicle of white racial injustice–plus the demographic changes over the last few decades, it’s not going to make any difference what Al and his people say at the board meeting; the Monroe name change is going to pass. Al writes in a mass email, “Based on comments from several board members, we believe we have a chance to influence the process.” “Democracy in action,” he says. In email correspondence with me, he asserted, “We’re not Don Quixote fighting windmills, nor are we politically naïve about bucking the current flavor of political correctness. I find it important to fight for principles like the rule of law, strengthening local schools, and wisely spending money.” Al has pointed out that a name change would cost $50,000. The name-change committee that’s been set up says it will be $12,000.
We’ll see what happens on the 18th, but I’ll be very surprised if Al’s side wins the day. Democracy in action, Al’s term, includes the reality that you greatly increase your chances of winning the vote if you can get your case on the moral high ground (being against slavery beats fighting for the rule of law, strengthening local schools, and wisely spending money); are in a position of power and influence (being Linwood-Monroe’s PTO chair or principal beats the slot Al, who provides marketing advice, occupies in the scheme of things); and if you are more disregarding of your opponent than he is of you (Al’s side are old white racists beats Dr. Bass didn’t meet with us like he said he would). What makes this complicated for me is that now that I’ve thought about it, I can’t honestly say I think a name change from Monroe would be a bad idea.
* * *
It’s June 16th, two days before the school board meeting. Today’s newspaper reports that a proposal to rename the school Global Arts Plus will be presented for the School Board’s approval at its meeting on the 18th. I noted that the name of the new school denotes a global, rather than local, state, or national identity. In my day, we wouldn’t have named something “Global.” The article reports Linwood-Monroe’s PTO co-chair Jason Johnson as saying that district councils in neighborhoods surrounding the school were notified of the desire for a name change, and that one of them sponsored a community meeting and mediation session on the issue last summer. “To reopen the process simply because an outside group was heard but didn’t get the outcome they hoped for,” says Johnson, “is a disservice to the students, parents, and staff that have chosen a name that honors the values and aspirations of the school as it is today, with its eye on tomorrow.” Of course, this doesn’t square with Al’s depiction of what’s gone on. I assume this discrepancy will come up at the board meeting. The article notes that this is the first time in the Twin Cities that the removal of a U.S. president’s name from a school has been proposed.
* * *
It’s June 17th, a mass email from Al:
This is a reminder to attend the School Board meeting on June 18th 5:30 when the School Board will decide on a new proposed name change for Monroe School. It’s important for us to have a large turn out from the Monroe community. We will be presenting our reasons for the Board to postpone any decision on the name change and reopen the process to obtain real community involvement in the decision. Bodies speak louder than words. Wear something green if you have it. The public comment process starts at 5:30 at the Saint Paul School Administration Building, located at 360 Colborne Street, Saint Paul, MN 55102. Come early and have some fun.
Monroe School? When has it ever been called that? And do bodies really speak louder than words? What will a group of white people, most all of them over sixty, dressed in green for a school that closed its doors 42 years ago, “speak”? And will it be louder that the words of the black student who is certain to be called upon to plead with the Board, “Please don’t make me go to a school named for someone who made slaves of people like me.” And really Al, this is a time to have some fun?
One day to go before the school board meeting.
* * *
June 19th. The decision is in, James Monroe shall remain nameless from now on. The article in the morning newspaper: “St. Paul School Board Renames School that Honored Slave-Owning President–Linwood Monroe Arts Plus Now to be Known as Global Arts Plus.”
The St. Paul school board voted 6-1 Tuesday night to strip the name of a slave-owning U.S. president from one of its schools, overriding the vocal objections of some of the school’s alumni.
Linwood Monroe Arts Plus, a dual-campus school that decades ago was home to the former Monroe High, named in honor of President James Monroe, now will be known as Global Arts Plus.
Red-clad proponents pushed for the change to better reflect the school’s arts-infused focus and diversity. Students come from all over St. Paul and all over the world, said Saray Garnett-Hochuli, the school’s PTO co-chairwoman.
Linwood Monroe’s upper grades now are housed at the former Monroe High, and that school’s active alumni—the last class graduated in 1977—brought a smattering of green colors—emblematic of the “Green Wave” of old—to the boardroom to fight the change.
In the end, Board Member John Brodrick was the lone member to side with opponents. Erasing the name of a U.S. president is new to Twin Cities name-changing conversations, and Brodrick, reflecting aloud, described it as a significant and important moment that should not be rushed.
Board Member Steve Marchese, however, said it was time to think of the young people carving out a new future. “We respect our history, but we are not bound to it,” he said.
Critics of the name change said school officials failed to follow board policy requiring broader alumni and community input in name-changing decisions. A year ago, when the issue first arose, more than 700 people signed a petition to keep the Monroe name a part of the West 7th Street community, Al Hanzal, a 1960 graduate, noted before the meeting. Dave Bredemus, a 31-year employee of the district who worked 25 years at Monroe, opposed the change. He said that he met with supporters of the change and saw no willingness to compromise. He said that while the name could be described as a product of the “school community,” it was not the work of the community at large. “It is so important to be involved with the community around the school,” he said.
Supporters of the change wanted to erase Monroe’s name and better reflect the school’s current mission. Global Arts Plus was chosen from among three options that also included Saint Paul Community Arts Plus and Linwood West 7th Arts Plus—taking 36% of the vote by students, parents and staff members.
Tuesday’s vote directs the administration to work with alumni and the West End community to explore a way to honor the Monroe name, but not necessarily James Monroe. Many people in the neighborhood know the name simply as Monroe.
On the budget front, the district had been eyeing a potential fifth consecutive budget deficit before being rescued by Gov. Tim Walz and state legislators. Marie Schrul, the district’s chief financial officer, said a late infusion of state money for voluntary preschool programming helped balance a general fund budget that also included $17.3 million in new voter-approved funding. The district is investing in its middle schools and in new teacher coaches who Superintendent Joe Gothard said are needed to bring more structure to efforts to improve school climate and make classes more relevant to students of diverse backgrounds.
Al says 75 of his people showed up at the meeting and that his side got eight minutes to make their case and the other side got 45. The vote on the name to propose must have been close if the winner of three received 36% of the total vote. I suspect there is a connection between eyeing the fifth consecutive school budget deficit despite a $17.3 million increase in local taxpayer support until the infusion of state funding saved the day and the need for “investing” to improve school climate and make classes more relevant to students from diverse backgrounds. A school climate issue? Nothing like that in the old days at Monroe. Somebody is paying the cost for what’s going on and it’s not the VOLAGs.
Here I am again drinking my morning coffee, this time asking myself, what does this episode imply for the concerns of this publication–white identity, interests, and culture–and for me personally? A lot of things come to mind, but I think it best to turn it back to you. What’s your best thinking on any or all of this?
To be, or not to be, that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take Arms against a Sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them: to die, to sleep
No more; and by a sleep, to say we end
The heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocks
That Flesh is heir to? ‘Tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep,
To sleep, perchance to Dream;…
And here we depart from Hamlet’s confused spirit to say:
The half-starved, ragged teenagers of Berlin, surviving in ruins, fought the invading Bolsheviks to their death or to the Gulags. A teen-age friend and his entire family worked in Siberia to erect an ultra-modern brick factory. After dark, he and his even younger brother were commandeered to collect the daily corpses on a sleigh and draw them to the river. A Red Army soldier would open the ice with a grenade in order to slip the German corpses under the waves.
Almost all readers here and a thankfully increasing number worldwide, realize, that while the World Communist Revolution-spouting Komintern was officially cancelled, its originators are alive and well, still working pursuant to Lenin’s personnel discipline and have unlimited funding to buy presstitutes.
I’m solidly on your former friend Al’s side and on that of my then only 15 year-old returned friend. Better to have fought and lost – than never to have fought at all !!! Enjoy your next coffee in all comfort, if it helps you to ponder why The Monroe Doctrine designation [ a tad wider than your description ] is not also called into question vis-à-vis Latin America.
Couldn’t agree more about letting it go and letting them change the name if they want.
The important question is, did actual learning ever really go on at that high school or any high school in the United States at that time or since?
in my experience and that of others I know, no high school ever taught, or even encouraged the students to consider, the importance of developing intellectual skills like, rigorous thinking, consistent reasoning, cautious judgment and effective and respectful communication.
And, by never having taught that they never learned to value it.
They never learned that having, not just intellectual skills, but an intellectual conscience, is a valuable and essential part of being a fully educated man or woman then and now. And that being able to think deeply and converse respectfully brings endless zest to living. It enhances the quality of life, making life about more than making money and having things.
But none of that was even talked about, let alone taught. So, it follows, it wasn’t learned, then or now. So it doesn’t really exist.
Americans never really took to higher education. They tried it and soon found out they didn’t like it. So they literally lost their minds and paved the way for the communists who are now running the show and ruining the country.
Because the communists don’t like higher education either. They prefer indoctrination to education, obviously. And that’s why their victory is Pyrrhic, at best.
In any event, I particularly like this line, “Sometimes in life, you just need to get away from the poison.”
They say you never really know your own language until you’ve learned another. I think that’s true. I think it’s also true that you never really know your own country until you’ve left it and lived for a good while somewhere else.
I did that, and after recovering from a period of terribly beautiful, sweet and sad nostalgia, I was better able to look back with a lot less sentimentality and a lot more emotional detachment and intellectual insight and see, clear as day, that the poison was there since way back when.
Like when we turned our back as a people on our cultural history and foolishly dismissed it because it had nothing to do with making money and having things.
Unfortunately, the poison in question, as with any sickness, is easier to cure when it’s harder to see, but harder to cure when it’s easy to see.
And yet, people still don’t see it because they never learned how to look, only to look away. And they never learned to look because they never learned how to think or feel. They never really developed their full humanity. So they never learned to live in reality, thereby adding to the poison.
Because all evil is the result of turning one’s back on reality.
1914- The head of the US Department of Education:
“Now the question is raised, do the schools exist for the students, or do the students exist for the schools? The answer is the latter.”
Children exist for the “schools” as they are State property, to be enslaved for the Powers That Be, jewish or otherwise.
The biggest mistake Americans ever made was allowing government into education.
>>>The odd fact of a Prussian provenance for our schools pops up again and again once you know to look for it. William James alluded to it many times at the turn of the century. Orestes Brownson was publicly denouncing the Prussianization of American schools back in the 1840s. Horace Mann’s “Seventh Annual Report” to the Massachusetts State Board of Education in 1843 is essentially a paean to the land of Frederick the Great and a call for its schooling to be brought here. That Prussian culture loomed large in America is hardly surprising, given our early association with that utopian state. A Prussian served as Washington’s aide during the Revolutionary War, and so many German-speaking people had settled here by 1795 that Congress considered publishing a German-language edition of the federal laws. But what shocks is that we should so eagerly have adopted one of the very worst aspects of Prussian culture: an educational system deliberately designed to produce mediocre intellects, to hamstring the inner life, to deny students appreciable leadership skills, and to ensure docile and incomplete citizens in order to render the populace “manageable.”<<<
https://tinyurl.com/y2uprjsm
Thanks for the link.
There’s a lot in Gatto’s work that is important and useful. And there are a number of videos on youtube of him and of Charlotte Iserbyt as well that are really valuable.
There are some points of his worth questioning. But, given the content and message of his work, given his own princples, he would have approved of such questionilng.
One example would be the last line of the linked article. “Let them manage themselves.”
I’d change that to teach them how to manage themselves.
I also don’t think “genius is as common as dirt.” But he does have a point in that it’s probably more common than we think.
Also, and obviously, Gatto couldn’t go deeper, like we can here, though even here we’re limited. So, he could fly under the radar long enough to get his point across by blaming it on the Germans, which, of course, is a misrepresentation of the actual situation.
Also, even to the extent he’s right, that system didn’t entirely squash dissent like what has happened since, ie; When Gatto himself was teaching.
When he was teaching you better believe it wasn’t the Germans who were running things. Just look at the dates he himself mentions.
The same period of time in our history when the FED was established, when The ADL was born, when in short, Finance and Information (all of it) fell into the hands of a people who weren’t even European, let alone German, though they may have come from those places, there were never OF those places.
And THAT Gatto could not have mentioned. I find it impossible to believe that a man as concerned about education as he was did not know this.
In any event, another great book on this subject is Jaques Barzun’s Begin Here: The Forgotten Conditions of Teaching and Learning.
He goes into detail about education in America but from a somewhat different perspective. But he doesn’t blame the Prussians. He blames the educational system, the culture, and us and he includes himself. Though he shouldn’t have. Because he did everything he could to right that wrong (that’s why he was wrong to blame himself. But that’s what gentlemen did back then).
This brought back to me something an “old” soldier, born in Prussian Germany, mentioned to me when I was a teenager: the horror of the schools there. He was a taciturn fellow, not given to exaggeration and running his mouth. In just a few words he made the schooling of his youth sound like a nightmare of excessive regimentation and outright cruelty. Some of this made its way here, I can tell you that for sure.
Not knowing anything about this case, I’d wager that Jews had their pasty little fingers, wrist-deep in this entire process.
Notwithstanding, your logical response of letting the name change go through and not wanting to bother with engaging your old school friend on the Race Reality aspect of the situation is also completely understandable.
However, unplanned White flight is certainly not the answer either.
Quite frankly, I believe there is no place left to run.
Being in Iceland now for 6+ years and working for more than three of them for one of the Jew proxy-controlled local “rags”…,
now that mine and the other major Jew proxy-controlled rags have undergone a merger and structural downsizing due to shrinking readership (and income),
my duties suddenly doubled and my pay was lowered by about 50%. This is only possible because of a scam involving a trio of “blind employer, slave labour and shady banking.(“No thank-you to that.” I told them.)
Nevertheless, even though I worked for an income well below the poverty level, I was able to save almost all of it through a combination of frugality, cleverness and a good measure of trickery.
Yet now that I am seeking to enter the “official” stream of the unemployed,
to take advantage of ” ‘…fitting…’ job search resources”,
it has come to my attention that not only was I not enrolled in the National Health Insurance Plan,
my Social Insurance Number was of a temporary nature!
In short, I am not recognized as a “regular human being” in Iceland, despite having never once sought any government support even when my situation was the most dire.
However, being a “…privileged…” Second-Generation, Sudeten-German Refugee-cum-Holocaust lie of the jews Whistleblower,
whose ancestors basically underwrote the man [Martin Luther] after whom the Nation Religion is named [Icelandic Lutheranism],
my Human Rights hover somewhere between a feral domestic animal and a convicted criminal.
Now if I had been vibrant Nigerian drug dealer or one of the many Third World “…new immigrants…” (Icelandic replacements) that work in one of the Jewish “..tri-gopolies…” of;
fisheries, tourism, or Aluminum (illicit street crime not included),
you can be sure that I would immediately have gotten a Social Insurance Number, Health Coverage, free Icelandic Language lessons, a new I Pad, a place to stay, a designer clothing budget and more.
The nastiest part of this whole sad story is that now that I have sufficient funds to relocate to almost anyplace else in the world, the sad reality is, there is no place left to run to!
Economically, Iceland basically belongs to Free Masonic Jewry, so its inhabitants are threatened with the Damocle’s Sword of Poverty should they buck the but politically correct narrative of everything perverted and inverted.
Legislatively however, Iceland hangs by a thread to a legally enforced code of free speech that is not only coming under daily attack by “the Jews”, but is willingly being assisted by the very citizens whose children’s children will pay the ultimate price.
The only solution I can see in America is to forget altogether about scattering and instead seek a County or even a State befitting of your numbers,
move there en masse and restart a re-colonization plan that strictly enforces a Racial population plan through an “unwritten rule” book.
If the Jews move in, simply [redact] them into [redacted].
If any other “harmonious and diverse” gifts of the Jews’ move in…, again…, simply [redact] them into [redacted].
“The nastiest part of this whole sad story is that now that I have sufficient funds to relocate to almost anyplace else in the world, the sad reality is, there is no place left to run to!”
Argentina
Bad advice Richard. I doubt that Roy would be happy to live in the same country as Eduardo Elsztain, the so called Owner. Because he owns half of the National Mortgage Bank, jointly with the Government; all major Malls; all electricity production; the entire real estate development sector; water rights, and joint ventures with Soros, Rothschild, etc., with the support of the IMF, World Bank, and, of course Treasury’s Mnuchin [ Menachem ], en route to getting a strangle hold on their very election system, apparently quite without the help of Putin. [ Pattern recognition fairly forces itself on even the casual observer ].
Roy can’t even consider Argentina’s Patagonia, because that is in [[[ their ]]] crosshairs already. Better peruse their Andinia Plan !
Responding on behalf of someone else perfectly capable of responding for themselves is just weird.
And what western country doesn’t have an Elsztain, or a group of Elsztains? None.
Also, considering their partnership with China (and not just with The Belt and Road Initiative, though that’d be enough) the whole world is in “their crosshairs.”
The simple fact is the Chinese and the Chosen own the world now and are busy dividing it up between them. China already owns Ecuador, which they bought outright in 2010.
The point, as Roy himself mentioned, is where are “those countries…where that (((cancer))) is least enforced.”
And, ironically, that part of the world is one of those places, for reasons one is welcome to figure out for themselves.
Please Sir,
I am honoured and morally uplifted to see Charles Frey commenting, in addition to my own comment (not, as you say…, “..on my behalf..”).
“…Weird…” from your muddled perspective perhaps, but as someone who is devoid of Kindred Spirits, it is a source of hope and understanding when people take an interest in the affairs of others.
“…Eiztians…”, as you call the [redacted] filthy Jew is often a marker of being a Jew.
Moreover, it was my point exactly…, that there is no country left where White people can go to, to avoid the filthy jew. As Charles pointed out, your advice is bad. Not only do I jump from the fire into the frying pan, were I to take it…, I spend a good percentage of my hard earned and saved reserves finding out something that takes me further away from a solution. Another Jew tactic…, keep the Goyem running, but give them no place to run to.
Did I understand you correctly? That a place to move to would be a country in South America…, because the Jew and the Chinese are dividing ownership of those places up between themselves?
[shaking my head trying not to speculate on your motives].
Don’t forget Catholic collusion with the Jews. (Vatican II, Argentinian Crypto-Jew Pope)
Your comment reminds me of a recent thought about W.N’ists creating a board game called “…Jewopoly…” or “…Jewoligopoly…”.
It would have to be exponentially more complex that the simple Jew version “…Monopoly…” presently on the market,
The board itself would need to be composed of some kind of combination of a World Map with supplementary boards being introduced into the game as time went on from pre-Christian times to the present.
Draw cards would be based on revisionist historically accurate occurrences.
The easy part about devising such a game would be the fact that we have merely to replicate a history that has already taken place and turn it into a board game.
The hard part would be how to rig the game so that Whites would be able to come back from the brink and reclaim rightful spots of their own on the map.
The satisfying part of the entire exercise is the history lesson it would provide for White and Global youth in game format (think translations into 30 different languages) and finally,
in playing to keep the Jews from ever reaching their “…Jewtopian Jewopoly…” Hell-hole,
one would need to devise ways in which Whites could restrict and eliminate the Jew threats once and for all.
I bet it would become a global best seller, but would require a collection of brilliant WN’ist minds to do justice to.
Thank you for the suggestion.
I cycled through northern Argentina, from Santa Catharina, Brasil on my way to the Trans-chaco, Paraguay to the Bolivian Altiplano (and onward) during the mid to late ’80’s.
Granted, Northern Argentina was markedly better than say…, Northern Brazil, from a Racial perspective, but the “Indio” admixture in the population lent a tinge of disorganization and lawlessness to the place that, as a globally savvy German, I am just tired of having to deal with.
Scandinavia (including Germany and Austria) suites me from a Racial and cultural perspective, so I am now looking into the “regress” (as opposed to “progress”) of the entire Jew funded Hate-Crimes Legislation scene in those countries to see where that (((cancer))) is least enforced.
I belong in Germany, there is no question about that, but at the moment, a multi-year prison sentence does not make it very appetizing.
In lieu of the above however, the closer I can get without landing in jail the better.
Iceland is better than Canada no doubt, but the high and narrow IQ bell curve still puts a significant majority of the population at least one, or almost two, standard deviations below my IQ.
(inbreeding, retarded jew cast-offs, Sami blood, recent increases in Third World “diversity and tolerance” AND (((American))) cultural influence has, IMO, given the long-term “…civilization-index…” (think: “..Standard & Poor’s..”) for Iceland a B-, and dropping, rating.
Also the Icelandic penchant for “jew-gelt”, and overwhelming “Jew-Fear-Stockholm Syndrome”, not to mention the insular, Island-like nature of the people, make it very difficult to find people of Spiritual Backbone for a Holocaust Lie of the jew Whistle-blower.
The above probably comes off as somewhat haughty and arrogant of me, but unlike people like say; Andrew Joyce, who are definitely British and still have a homeland worth fighting for, mine is under ” martial law by the (((rest of the world))) “.
That is not the case in the UK.
Moreover, in the UK, given the incentive and the motivation, there is still plenty of opportunity to find examples of true genius that one can aspire to in one’s daily life.
Where as Korea might be seen as the is the “Italy of the East”, Iceland is kind of like the “Japan of the West”.
Very herd oriented, disinterested in speaking out and thinking critically/independently, orderly yes, but also very “copy and improve” minded as opposed to innovative.
They also know what to do with crooked bankers (like those who gave us the 2008 recession) in Iceland!
Precisely.
But even there;
1) How much time in jail time did the Banksters do?
2) What type of time was it? (I.e maximum security [think Black Gang Rape] or
Club Fed with a bank account, unlimited funds and lots of amenities,…)
3) How does their punishment compare to the amount they stole? (I.e. does crime pay?)
4) If one finds that the answer to the above is anywhere above “…Yes…”,
(I.e. extremely handsomely) then Jews scored double, because they got paid to commit huge financial crimes against those who pay taxes,
and afterwards,
recycle-embellish the whole sordid affair in their MSM strongholds, thereby generating media ratings dollars and tourist revenue (of which they are inevitable net beneficiaries).
Never underestimate the multiple number of depravity layers that Jews are capable of achieving.
How does that old saying go about the Jews?…,
“..The Jew cries out in pain as he strikes the Goyem.”
Right now, the people are actually convinced the Jew is in pain…,
just wait till they find out it was all just manipulation and usury !
In addition, after all the hoopla that Iceland did things differently by NOT bailing out or repaying foreign banks, the banks did exactly that through the back door so to speak.
In the aftermath of the 2008 crash, around 2014 and again around 2016, the Icelandic government opened up a loophole to allow “…off-shore Isk…”, as they called them, to be re-imported into the country.
I am not a banking expert, so maybe someone can elaborate on this, but as far as I understood/remember it, the government opened up an auction with minimum bids of 40,000,000.00 Isk to buy back foreign currency from the Central Bank’s foreign currency reserves.
The highest bidder was able to be the first buyer of the foreign currencies and the bids ended up being twice the going rate that individual/average Icelanders were paying (although in restricted amounts) at the time,
but it allowed potentially billions of Krona, by the largest holders, to be “…re-introduced…” into the Icelandic market while virtually wiping out any foreign currency reserves that the country built up in the interim.
So the bottem line is:
1) Bankers were sent to a 5-star jail for a couple of years for stealing billions,
2) The government tell the MSM-world that they did NOT bail out the banks and jailed the banksters thereby generating advertising and tourist revenue.
3) Finally, seven years after the theft, the culprits were allowed to reimport their stolen wealth…, and on the quantitatively eased Isk…,
empty the foreign exchange reserves of the country: a bail out by any other name!
Your thoughts on the futile protest against the school name change echo mine about voting or participating in any local cause or campaign: it’s not worth my time or concern. While you state “it is too simple to state demographics is destiny,” I believe exactly that demographics, plus most Whites are brainwashed, virtue-signaling fools, plus Most People Are Idiots, is entirely predictive. I suppose if I were Negro and as filled with anti-White animus as most Negroes are, I would be in favor of jettisoning James Monroe’s name. But their race and concerns are not my race and concerns, and any challenge to the erasure of White history (factual, European, or American myth-making) that fails to acknowledge genetic racial differences in favor of some equally artificial multicultural Ellis Island melting pot fantasy is not merely futile, but not an effort I’d be willing to put my name to. It’s just more theater of the absurd in clownworld and I want no part of it. Either total resistance or total disengagement is my policy – and since resistance at this stage (and without the numbers or money to make it meaningful) is suicidal, then disengagement is my choice. I do as little as possible to acknowledge the State and its polyglot tenants as possible. Opt out until it’s possible to truly get out.
“What’s your best thinking on any or all of this?”
That you were correct when you said “Back off. Quit trying to work anything out around race. Relate to you own and let the rest of them go their own way.”
No sense trying to put lipstick on a pig. Keeping the Monroe name on the school would have improved nothing for the white folks in St. Paul or us in general. We would still be, still are, in occupied territory. Time to look reality straight in the eye and to start a new chapter.
You can’t ” start a new chapter ” by yielding the right of way. Were you to indulge in that, you would never see your children again after your long commute home from work. There is only a single lane, and letting them go ” their ” way, necessitates our backing up.
Standards fluttering from a thousand cavalry horses, accompanied by the trumpets’ fanfare, is not the only way history is decided.
The majority is drip-drip-drip and of course the accidental DRIP.
In my opinion, there’s only two answers to the leftist desire to erase American history – shrink government, especially the Federal, such that it no longer possesses the power to control any significant aspect of civil society beyond securing life, liberty, and property, or militate for peaceful secession. The country already possesses far too many people who self-identify as hyphenated national beings so they’re going to be a constant source of irritation for the remaining and ever-shrinking number of traditional Americans and traditional American institutions. For every Michele Malkin, who self-identifies as a non-hyphenated American, there are millions of non-European Americans who self-identify racially as members of their historical racial grouping and who secretly harbor feelings of hatred toward the people and institutions of traditional America.
Michelle is married to (((Jesse Malkin))). . .
It really stinks to have insufficient capital and independence to expatriate! I grew up in the U.S.A., in the 60s, and I’m living in the same geographical region I grew up in. But it’s not America or even my own country anymore — perhaps it never was before, though it sure felt like it then. This hellhole here is The Socialist Compound of Equalistan, and frankly, its prospects for longevity as an autonomous country seem very poor indeed.
I agree with you, white parents in that school should take their students out, to go to a mostly white school or, better, a whiter city. My two children went to public elementary schools in Berkeley, CA in the ’90s. Just as it sounds is happening in St. Paul, the sympathy and attention flowed very disproportionately towards the ‘children of color’. Much hand-wringing over the achievement gap. I just checked the racial data of Berkeley schools–38% white, 15% black, 24% Hispanic/Latino, 7% Asian with a few other categories. So 24% probably weren’t even born in the US, or at least their parents weren’t. As a very active parent, the degree to which white people and culture were disparaged and taken for granted was infuriating and very demoralizing to me (and I started out as a liberal.) When we left the district for private middle school, I felt like I had just escaped the Soviet Union, so oppressive had been the political correctness. I just read an online 2018 article about Berkeley High that showed they still seem primarily concerned with desegregating the way freshmen students hang out.
On the name issue, the former Columbus Elementary School became Rosa Parks Environmental Magnet School in the late 1990s. The name of Jefferson Elementary School was allowed to stay, somewhat surprisingly. There’s a Malcolm X Elementary in the district. Decades ago, it used to be named something like Monroe or Grant. It had a very old tradition of doing annual Gilbert & Sullivan musical productions before it succumbed to advancing P.C.
“He was the author behind the Monroe Doctrine in 1823 that forbid European countries from establishing colonies on United States soil.” Two quibbles. First. forbid should be forbids.Second. “on United States soil” should be either “in the Western Hemisphere” or “in the Americas”
Kindle do not post this but forward it to Dr. Griffin for his verification and correction if he should so choose. .
Of course, the Monroe Doctrine became a dead issue after 1961, when Cuba officially became a satellite of the USSR.
I’ve always enjoyed Prof. Griffin’s thoughts. I admire his soul and like him very much. He certainly often hits the long ball. He has a lot of quality. On the other hand, when reading his reflections -he even wrote about Mr. Fields- I realize that he today’s era he’d never have been a professor and/or obtained a similar position. Further, in all probability, he wouldn’t be living in the great EuroMan state of VT.
I’ve not only seen much of the world, I’ve seen Amdom’s demographic change. For years, I’d take an iron horse and do exploration tours from Florida to Montana and beyond. It would break my heart seeing the demographic change. There are today over 90 unofficial official City States with the US. Until recently people like the ‘Big’ O would have been dealt with and 100,000 multicultural enriching Somalis would not be here.
All people seek peace. Until recently EuroMan was proud of his heritage. Today, as readers of KMac’s creation(s) comprehend MSM and the educational system has accomplished exactly, in many ways, what was instituted in the Workers’ Paradise. What they didn’t have was 40 million Afros. Masses still actually believe that they have representation in La CessPool Grande. You know, by those who institute Gerrymandering.
Without a relocation policy this country will not survive. It’ll take time to be more colourful, however, a century can be nothing or everything in the long run. For just one example, in Haiti there were several villages containing EuroMan and 100 years later there are none. Similar scenarios have been seen all over the world.
All members of our KMac Euro family need to read Wilmont Robertson’s Ethno State. It might still be possible to save something. Prof. Griffin hit a double when he noted the foolishness of his classmate inferring that a name factor was not racial. Did those attending that meeting actually believe the matter was not racial? Perhaps they were simply like those in the Soviet Empire following accepted vernacular. You know, applying self-censorship.
I’ve been all over the region in question and wonder how many attending that voting adventure would send their progeny to the type of educational institute under discussion. Here, in the South, millions have their kids in such academic facilities. In so called gifted classes children learn about such figures as ray Charles. It’ not by accident that in Georgia and Florida the race for governorship was almost secured by colourful diversity icons.
Well, my coffee is now ready. Let me conclude by stating that relocation policy is the only road that goes beyond any dream filled hypotheses. Prof. Griffin’s valid thoughts on a petition, evolutionary school composition and a meeting speaks volumes.
We’re heading the way of Haiti, I’m afraid!
A fascinating account of vast societal change in microcosm.
What has me remaining sympathetic to the name-change opponents though, is the reported viciousness of the school authorities – “…a bunch of old white racists” – in their response to reasonable requests.
Whites it seems are not allowed to have a dissenting view on such matters, and the authors suggestion that they move to a more amenable neighborhood is probably out of the question for most of them.
Eventually there is nowhere to run to
Not at the rate that Islamoids are being “resettled” throughout the American heartland!
Getting aggravated over a name change of a school that’s no longer in a white neighborhood is wasted energy. Save what we can by fighting back against forced diversity and do everything possible to bring down those NGO’s that are bringing non-whites into the country whether they be religious or political organizations. Many of these organizations could simply be eliminated by changing their tax exempt status or charging them under the RICO act. Whites need to get together the best legal minds together to determine the best ways to either sue or use legislation to take these organizations down.
https://archive.org/details/DrPiercesBroadcastsmp3/Pierce-19970712-TheImportanceOfCourage.mp3
Thanks for the link.
The reason Dr. Pierce resonated so deeply with me is that he spoke like a Spiritually Enlightened being.
Whenever I hear his voice, I remember the days when I had my first and only son stolen from me and my life was being (((systematically destroyed))),
During the evenings, after doing battle against goliath,
in a smelly, moldy old basement, with free, AOL trail access,
I listened to his recordings and recharged my Spiritual Batteries.
With epiphany after déjà vu epiphany, I honestly thought I had accidentally stumbled into the path of a Spiritual Brother.
Without Dr. Pierce, I don’t think I would have made it through those terrible times.
My daughter was parentally-kidnapped in infancy while I was away on critical business. She was hidden by lying wannabe Jews who even changed her name which led me to better people and places like here.
@Royalalbrecht. “I remember the days when I had my first and only son stolen from me and my life was being (((systematically destroyed)))”
What happened to your son? What do you mean when you say he was stolen from you?
Too long a story to do justice to in this commentary.
However, the story is a perfect example of how Jews work with anyone
(I.e. retards, leftists, Third Worlders, feminists…)
or manipulate any org.
(((I.e. judiciary, three levels of government, crown corporations, medical est., child welfare groups, police, media, and organized crime…)))
to target individuals who threaten their heavily invested in Holocaust lie.
You and many others who have asked the same question will have to wait for my three book autobiography to be published in order to read all the juicy details!
Sorry for the circumspect answer, but I have been reprimanded for blathering on from time to time by the mods at TOO and this topic will definitely get me another reprimand!
@Royal. So when is that autobiography of yours going to be available for us to read? I am interested. Biographies and autobiographies are probably my favorite category of reading, but it has to be a physical book.
Maybe its because of the recent article on Homer the journey homeward as allegory comes to mind and avoiding snares that bind to a world that is not home. A home which is populated with a kin founded on shared values – an eternal rather than ephemeral home.
Somebody once said that you must hate this world to inherit the next and amidst a sea of chaos maybe there is a good at work in all this.
I can definitely relate to that. No “…maybe…” about it!
Al Hanzal – sounds like one of those Somali thugs who are now taking over the Twin Cities!
I read this article when it was first posted, and was tempted to comment, but chose not to, sensing my reply would lean too heavily on a similar experience with a school local to me. I too initially felt inspired to add my name to a petition, etc. But the inevitability of the coming name change, despite some small gestures towards “listening to the community” on the part of the board, was evident.
I agree that this fight is not the critical one at this time. The larger question is, what are they teaching inside that school, never mind for a moment who the building is named for.
They are teaching the “noble” history of the Civil Rights movement, reverence for Rosa Parks and “Dr.” King. They make villains of White historical figures, and saints of black ones.
When they aren’t teaching Civil Rights Hagiography, they are teaching “Holocaust” “history”.
Our problems are so much more profound, and so embedded in our educational culture, that I’m not sure it makes one damned bit of difference *what* they call the building.