If you ever go to Savannah, you will see arcing across the river a mighty bridge. This bridge, the Talmadge Bridge, is named after former Democratic governor of Georgia Eugene Talmadge.
Since long before the monuments controversy, I've been expecting them to change the name. Talmadge was an important Georgia governor, to be sure. He was a fierce opponent of Franklin D. Roosevelt, these days considered a major saint by Democrats but in those days intensely opposed even by many fellow Democrats. He was a fierce opponent of labor unions, declaring martial law when necessary to break strikes. He was against civil rights for blacks, and deeply disturbed by the idea that whites and blacks might intermarry. Indeed, he ran his 1950 re-election campaign chiefly against miscegenation as a reason to favor segregation.
Yeah, it's been a while now I've been expecting people to look around and notice they have a big bridge named after him.
So anyway, the Girl Scouts of America have decided they'd like the bridge renamed after their founder, Juliette Gordon Lowe, who came from Savannah. Her house is a major tourist attraction.
I see no reason to oppose this change.
4 comments:
Good choice. I don't tend to like renaming, but if Juliette Lowe doesn't have enough named for her already down there, that needs to be corrected.
Call it the Bridge Over Troubled Water. Leave people's names off it.
Eric Hines
The Savannah River is not so troubled. Excepting the odd storm and rare hurricane, River Street is as pleasant a place as you’ll find in a city. Stop by Kevin Barry’s Pub, and be sure not to miss the Hall of Heroes on the second floor. It is a shrine to our very best.
At least the proposal is to name it after a person deceased for some time. Too often these days, they're naming stuff after someone the second they leave office.
I think that's a fine proposal to rename the bridge. If people looked up Juliette Gordon Lowe, she meant Girl Scouts to be much more practical than it has become with the social programs being worked into it. Thank God my daughters Troop unit doesn't do the "Journeys" exercises and sticks for the most part to the more traditional stuff.
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