Proverbs 22:1
A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favour rather than silver and gold.
Names matter: Names are important: Names say a lot:
Since names matter today’s song is about the name above all names, Jesus. It’s a new version of an old hymn I hope you enjoy it.
It matters who an elementary school is named after. That’s my subject for today, I live in Fort Smith, Arkansas and here’s a list of the elementary schools in Fort Smith.
SCHOOL NAME ADDRESS
Ballman 2601 South Q Street
Barling 1400 D Street
Beard 1600 Cavanaugh Road
Bonneville 2500 South Waldron Roa
Carnall 2524 South Tulsa Street
Cavanaugh 1025 School Street
Cook 3517 Brooken Hill
Euper Lane 6601 Euper Lane
Fairview 2400 South Dallas Street
Howard 1301 North 8th Street
Morrison 3415 Newlon Road
Orr 3609 Phoenix Avenue
Pike 4111 Park Avenue
Spradling 4949 Spradling Avenue
Sunnymede 4201 North O Street
Sutton 5001 Kelley Highway
Tilles 815 North 16th Street
Trusty 3300 Harris Avenue
Woods 3201 Massard Road
Who are these people that elementary schools were named for? They must had done something good in their life in order to have such an honor that a elementary school would be named for them. I want to know who each of these people were and what they did to earn this honor. I went to the Fort Smith Public School website looking for a list of public schools and a short biography of the school’s namesake. There wasn’t anything explaining why or who the school was named for. I then went to several schools website and Face Book pages but no matter how hard I looked I couldn’t find any reference whatsoever of the school’s namesake. I know of who a couple of elementary school were named for. I went to Carnall Elementary, it was named after John Carnall, know as the founder of Fort Smith Public Schools. There is a statue of John Carnall downtown with a description of all his accomplishments. Tilles Elementary is named after a man who also gave land for a city park. I walk by his grave when I cut threw Fort Smith’s Jewish cemetery on my walks to the pharmacy. The rest of elementary schools must have been named for someone of equal stature, right? You wouldn’t name something as important as a public elementary school after someone who was not worthy, would you?
If you thought that then you would be wrong. Then here the other day someone asked the question: Do you know who Albert Pike was? If your like me you would say yes he was the man who Albert Pike Ave and Albert Pike Elementary School was named after. When you drive down Rogers Ave, named after the founder of the city of Fort Smith John Rogers, you come to the intersection of Rogers Ave. and Albert Pike Ave. Turning north on Albert Pike you pass by St. Scholastica Monastery and Trinity Jr. High School. Still heading north a few miles and you come to Park Ave. turn left and there’s Albert Pike Elementary. So who was Albert Pike? Like me, I’ve lived here all my life, a lot of people assumed that like John Rogers and others that Albert Pike must had something to do with the rich history of Fort Smith. It turns out Albert Pike does have a lot of history in Fort Smith, but it turns out it’s not the kind of history that should result in being honored with a street and elementary school named after.
Albert Pike was a brigadier General in the Confederate Army and was in command of the Indian Territory. Look him up on the internet and see what he stood for! He was the only Confederate military officer with an outdoor statue in Washington, D.C., and in 2019 Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton called for its removal.[28] On June 19, 2020, protestors tore down the statue and set it ablaze, in connection with the George Floyd protests because of Pike’s association with the Confederacy.[29] This drew local attention to Albert Pike and the last week the Fort Smith School Board voted to change the name of Albert Pike Elementary School!! The fight is on to rename Albert Pike Ave.
What should we change the name to? Because of what I said at the start Names Matter. I have an idea of what we should rename both the elementary school and the street. This is also what is called a no brainer . Albert Pike Elementary should be renamed Ray Baker Elementary. I first meet Mr. Baker back in the 70s while I attended Southside High School.where Mr. Baker was an American History teacher. Oh did I mention that Mr. Baker was an AMERICAN HISTORY teacher? It was easy to see Mr. Baker dedication and his great love he had for teaching. There’s no doubt if you ask hundreds or probably thousands of people who was their favorite teacher was, most would say it was Mr. Ray Baker. I never had the privilege to be taught by Mr. Baker I was assigned to another American History teacher but I firmly believe that a school should be named for a school teacher or what they would like to called today an educator.
But what should rename Albert Pike Ave. to? I would suggest Ray Baker Ave. because in 1990 Mr Ray Baker became Mayor Ray Baker. The mayor of Fort Smith does not have any political power. The city government is controlled by seven city directors the position of mayor is to be an ambassador for the city. Some cities that have a similar form of government the position of mayor may be little more that a figurehead. But not for the twenty years that Ray Baker was mayor of Fort Smith! Ray Baker only had one speed and he took the job of mayor with the same zeal and passion he had for teaching. My dad worked at a local nursing home and Mayor Baker would come every year and host the nursing home beauty pageant, the old people loved him and he loved them back. He always went above and beyond his “official” duties. The last time I saw him I went downtown to pay a water bill, and Mr. uh Mayor Baker was walking on the sidewalk just outside the city’s office building. I told him he was looking good and he said thanks, he really didn’t look well at all and just a few weeks later he passed away. He left behind his wife of 46 years two kids and a lot of grand kids.
This is someone who deserves a school and a street named after not a Confederate General and a white supremacist writer! I’m not even going to start comparing these two men.
On my last post Shades of Grey by The Monkees I wrote about the struggle to have the Confederate statue removed here in Fort Smith. No news on our statue but just the other day the Confederate statue was removed from the city square of Bentonville Arkansas.
I cannot overstate how big this is! Bentonville Arkansas is not a typical southern small town city square far from it. Bentonville Arkansas is the world headquarters of Wal- Mart. On the town square of Bentoville sets Walton’s 5 & dime the museum that chronicles the entire history of Wal-Mart. I’ve been there it’s worth the trip. But what makes this so important is all the other people who visit Wal-Mart’s museum every year. The Wal-Mart shareholders meeting is a massive week long event that brings thousands of Wal-Mart associates from all over the world. The shareholders meeting is held at the 20,000 seat Bud Walton Arena on the campus of the University of Arkansas, there are concerts by the biggest stars of music. The meeting is always hosted by a major celebrity. Yes it’s a very big deal. Besides the Wal-Mart shareholders meeting there are several others events like the Bentonville Film Festival and other events that draw people from all over the world to Bentonville.
What do you suppose the people from all over the world think when they come out of the Wal-Mart museum and walk across the street to the little park in the center of the square? They a see a statue on a tall pedestal and you might think the man on top of that would be Sam Walton, the man who turned his little store they just walked out of into the largest retailer in the world. The man who turned the towns of Northwest Arkansas: from south to north: Fayetteville, Springdale, Rogers, Bentonville, and Bella Vista, into a metro area of almost a half of a million people. That would be the logical statue in the middle of Bentonville square, however that’s not what’s there. The statue, also know as The Shame of Bentoville, at it’s base on all four sides in large letters the word CONFEDERACY and a pedestal with a confederate solider on top.
What would the hundreds of Wal-Mart associates from China say? Would they say something like do Americans honor their enemies, or the associates from from former Soviet countries and countries that have overthrew a dictator, they would they say After we fought to gain our freedom we tore down all statues to our former enslavers. And then there are the associates from Germany: The United States could learn a lot from talking to these associates from Germany. Unlike here in the United States, it’s illegal in Germany to display the Nazi Swastikas, including Swastikas flags! It’s even illegal to give someone the Hiel Hitler salute. If these associates from Germany want to see people proudly waving Nazi flags, giving Hitler salutes then they have to come to the United States! The associates from the other parts of the world might be confused but the associates from Germany understand they can go back to their country and tell everyone they know back home in Germany what happens when a small group of people are allowed, by hiding behind the 1st amendment, to display symbols of hate. How groups like the hate group known as The Daughters of the Confederacy, who sowed seeds of hate throughout the southern United States by erricting monuments such as the statues in Bentonville and the statue in Fort Smith glorifying the Confederacy. They did this over one hundred years ago by installing statues and encouraging the naming public buildings such as the elementary school and street in today’s post. The Daughters of the Confederacy and other groups such as the KKK had a plan. Yes it did take one hundred years, but this seeds of hated planted in the first part of the 20th century has grown and fully blossomed into the normalization and almost complete acceptance of white supremacy. From the pulpit to the White House they have almost accomplished their objective. People on the right (that’s what they call their selves today) think that the removing these statues and changing the names of Confederate named buildings and streets and yes of coarse US army bases, are erasing history. Every time there’s a news report they always has someone saying that this is our history, it’s our heritage and removing or renaming is erasing history! Of coarse they don’t care about history and I doubt that they really know much of history, their goal is not remember history, it’s to repeat it! Robert E. Lee didn’t believe in Confederacy statues he said they would serve to “reopen the bitter wounds of war”. If the United States did as Germany and banded all public glorification of the Confederate ideas then things would be a different and much more clam today. As I said in my last post ALL MEMBERS OF THE CONFEDERACY TOOK A KNEE TO THE FLAG OF THE UNITED STATES AND TOOK UP ARMS AGAINST IT AND THE PLEDGE OF LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL. I still don’t understand these people on Face Book who make vicious posts about black athletes who take a knee, but defend white people who did far worse. This brings me to the theme of my next post where I will explain in detail the huge difference between BLM and the KKK.