We saw it coming, and now here it is. The cult of personality around Dear Leader Barack Obama continues to grow stronger by the day. Barely 2 weeks after he was elected President, a school has been renamed in his honor.
From USA Today
The former Ludlum Elementary School, in Long Island’s Hempstead Union Free School District, was renamed at a school board meeting Thursday — effective immediately.
School officials say most of the 440 students there are black or Hispanic, and Obama’s victory is a source of great pride.
Ok, as a black man in America, I understand the whole pride issue, but, and this is a humongously big but. Is winning an election enough cause to rename a public institution after someone? No offense to those who support Barack Obama, but an election is a popularity contest, nothing more, nothing less. It is what a person does with his/her mandate that matters. Obama has not been in office for even 24 hours, he has not done anything remotely significant as President, and he has not finished his term with his reputation intact.
As Ed Morrissey over at Hotair noted, imagine what would have happened if a school was renamed after Richard Nixon before he even got sworn in.
On my part, I think there are tons of black heroes that schools can be named after, people who have actually done something to advance the cause of humanity, and not merely been celebrities.
The Black Collegian provides a listing of a few of them:
- Benjamin Banneker
- Mary McLeod Bethune
- Ralph Bunche
- George Washington Carver
- Frederick Douglass
- W.E.B. DuBois
- Paul Lawrence Dunbar
- Marcus Garvey
- Fannie Lou Hamer
- Matthew Alexander Henson
- Dr. Percy Lavon Julian
- Jan Ernest Matzeliger
- James Weldon Johnson
- Jesse Owens
- A. Philip Randolph
- Paul Robeson
- Sojourner Truth
- Harriett Tubman
- Ida B. Wells
- Granville T. Woods
- Carter G. Woodson
- Phillis Wheatley
- Whitney Moore Young
A cult of celebrity is a dangerous thing, especially when the celebrity is the President of the United States of America. The reason public institutions are not named after serving leaders is because they are still in office and that gives them an unfair advantage at the polls.
Since schools are usually polling places, imagine which Presidential candidate has an advantage in that polling place going in on November 4th, 2012…
UPDATE: It seems another school is about to be named in honor of the deal leader, this time in Portland, OR…
Scores of students at Clark K-8 @ Binnsmead, a clumsy name that combines the former names of two schools which merged in the Montavilla neighborhood last summer, have stuffed a suggestion box advocating Barack Obama as the new name for their school at 2225 S.E. 87th Ave.
Posted by PUMA Pundit
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