Goethe/Live Oak/Riverbend/Some Maidu word most people won't try to pronounce Park

So a local park along the American River is having it's name changed, because the man it's named after apparently promoted eugenics, a 19th century theory that mental and physical defects are hereditary and that people with mental illness should be forcibly sterilized so they wouldn't have children and "pollute" the healthy hereditary lines. Later on people used it to justify racism and other rotten causes.

Pretty messed up, I agree--but as a student of history, I'd also point out that people had alot less knowledge and alot more biases back then. Besides, people are still using foolish ideas to justify their own, more foolish ideas. In 100 years we'll probably be taking their names off of park signs too. I respect the gesture, it's a nice thought. But it seems kind of pointless. Also interesting is this--wikipedia says Alexander Graham Bell was a proponent of eugenics too! Guess we all better stop using our phones :) I sincerely doubt there are many historical figures that didn't have something stupid they did/believed in during their lifetimes. But I guess we pick and choose who we're going to be proud of, and who we'll be ashamed of.

Other people will be wondering about the dumb stuff we concerned ourselves with in some far-off day. Will they condemn us for buying Kraft Mac & Cheese, since Kraft is owned by the Philip-Morris company, who knowingly sell addictive products that cause cancer and emphysema? What will they say about the cheap products we buy that are made by people who couldn't afford to buy the product they make themselves, since they're paid so poorly? Or about us depending on fossil fuels for transportation, when there are clean, non-polluting alternatives that would work just as well? And how about the millions we spend on entertainment while people are living homeless on the streets? What will they say about our society that centers around the mighty dollar? About the way we spend hours upon hours struggling our lives away to get this strange currency, often at the expense of growth, learning & exploration that could have made us better people while we lived? They'll be pulling our names off signs faster than you can blink, I betcha.

So the park system has asked the local populace to vote on several choices for the new name (hence the title of this post). I personally voted for the Maidu word--even though the locals won't bother learning how it's pronounced and will be slaughtering it for generations to come. I like the idea of giving some props to the Maidu--who have been so reduced in our time that I'd never heard of them until I took a class on local Anthropology. And I've lived here almost all my life! I never really liked the park's original name anyway--no one could agree on how it was supposed to be pronounced.

So I guess I'm saying--we should never honor bigotry or hatred--but we should be careful, lest we end up with no heroes at all. After all, nobody's perfect.

Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end

Not that this is a new beginning, mind you. I just must be sufficiently bored to have started one of these "blog" things. And I think about different random things that I thought might be interesting to look in on later, when I'm in a different state of mind. And I also love that lyric, so it's worth repeating.

One thing I was thinking about this evening--does the LDS culture cause singles to be more concerned about age differences than someone outside the faith would be? Mormons are so marriage-obsessed that I find myself the male equivalent of an old maid at the ripe age of 32, looking at profiles on LDS dating sites, wondering what's wrong with me--so the tide of thoughts naturally flows in that sort of direction. It just makes me curious--I wonder if girls who are not LDS are less concerned about age differences? I don't really have any basis for conjecture in that area, only one girl who was 27 and said in her profile "no one over 30!" Personally I would be willing to date someone 5 years older, if we clicked, but that's just me. A somewhat vengeful part of me hopes that young lady stays single into her 30s and comes across a profile just like hers to put her in her place. Perhaps she'll feel differently with the shoe on the other foot, eh? It's just one of many requirements so many women seem to have on their profiles that I don't meet--so I try not to worry about it. But I do admit she's an anomaly, most LDS women don't seem near as concerned about age differences.

Playing alot of Guild Wars in the last few days, balanced out by alot of Burnout Paradise on the PS3 :) There really is nothing quite the same as boosting up to asinine speeds, making a huge jump, only to make a spectacular crash upon landing, watching your 3D rendered metal carcass smoosh up like an accordion. And Guild Wars new Eye of the North expansion is proving pretty enjoyable too. I spent an hour or two this afternoon "driving" a giant scorpion-turned-siege-tank around, killing monsters. Fun stuff.

My biggest frustration at the moment is my shiny new HTPC--which loses significant shine due to the fact I can't get it to go into standby, wake up to record, then go back into standby, without crashing. Tried everything save wiping the hard drive to start over, nothing works. Guess that's my next step.

Ah well, tomorrow starts another week of well-paid, but fairly meaningless work. Yay! :P

P.S. A Burnout Paradise vid for your enjoyment. :)