San Francisco's Board of Education Considers Abraham Lincoln "A Known Racist"

San Francisco's Board of Education will rename 44 schools removing the names of people they deem "known racists".

These known racists include George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, former SF mayor and current California Senator Dianne Feinstein and Abraham Lincoln. 

Yes, Washington and Jefferson were slave owners but there would not be an America without them. Feinstein is out of favor due to dubious claims she raised a Confederate flag over SF City Hall.

The objection to Lincoln is his Administration's treatment of Native Americans. His record is complicated. But ending slavery does not make you "a known racist."

By removing Lincoln from the public square we are telling our children there is no difference between those who ended slavery those who sought to preserve it.

Indeed, I made this same argument last summer when protesters in San Francisco saw fit to take down a statue of Ulysses S. Grant. He too had a complicated legacy when it came to Jews. While I believe it should be acknowledged it doesn't change the fact that if not for Grant's military strategy the United States would have ceased to exist more than 150 years ago.

As the old Stealers' Wheel song says there are clowns to the left and jokers to the right. I will call out both groups when they act dangerously and foolishly.