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Letter to the editor: Renaming Huff Elementary

Original post made on Aug 22, 2020

Letter to the editor on the proposal to rename Huff Elementary School in Mountain View

Read the full story here Web Link posted Saturday, August 22, 2020, 6:52 AM

Comments (2)

Posted by Steven Nelson
a resident of Cuesta Park
on Aug 22, 2020 at 11:44 am

Steven Nelson is a registered user.

It is good to hear from 'an affected party' who has an immigrant family perspective. And Chiang has cred as a secondary school history teacher. The article above is a clear statement and 'historical approach' that in some way mirrors the "restorative justice" approach to turning around wayward kids in a school environment. This is An Experienced Educator's Approach.

Why I support Mr. Chiang for getting another round on the Governing Board of the MVWSD.

History - what is the First Source on this Huff brothers information? As of now, the MVWSD has only offered 'secondary sources' (though internet is a great way to get obscure real documents). Would there be a way to 'cleanse the Huff school name'? Does the family currently support (and publicly broadcast these racist views - assuming it was true of the brothers)? Then - by all means - erase the FAMILY NAME from our communities public school!

But, and I speak to Trustee Wheeler particularly and directly, did the Treman family, over in Palo Alto, deserve to have their, and their father and their grandfather family-name disrespected because their ancient ancestor (great-great-grandfather of the youngest) was a proponent of eugenics? (racism in a pseudo-scienctific package). [Terman MS renamed]. HOW MANY GENERATIONS DOES THE FAMILY HAVE TO "PAY" for THIS? Terry Terman has been a great supporter of local 'good government' (with his late wife - decades in the League of Women Voters). I for myself, never heard a specific or unspecific racist theory or utterance from Terry Terman. The great academic honor, of the Terman family at Stanford had to do, for many of us engineers, with the son of 'the problem'. THAT Professor Fred Terman, the son, was a close engineering mentor of the Hewletts and Packards who went on and charitably supported millions of local folks from all immigrant groups and generations. (HP, Hewlett Foundation, Packard Foundation, Monterey Bay Aquarium etc., etc. etc.)


Posted by HAB
a resident of Willowgate
on Nov 4, 2020 at 12:39 pm

HAB is a registered user.

I am coming late to this op-ed.
This supposed historic take is wildly ahistorical in its argument. The "product of their times" argument has been used to excuse racism and white supremacist violence as if people during that time didn't know better. As long as there have been racists, there have been anti-racists. That's why we have Civil Rights Uprisings in response to a rise in racist violence and terror. Because anti-racists have always existed in every era of human history. A quick glance at the Wikipedia entry for anti-racism dispels the myth of "a product of his times."


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