Renaming a School
Re “School Puts Jefferson’s Legacy to Test,” March 27: Thomas Jefferson would have heartily approved of the vote to change the name of Berkeley’s Thomas Jefferson School.
In one of his most interesting, intellectual excursions, he insisted that “the Earth belongs to the living” and proposed that each generation should have the chance to vote on all the country’s laws.
His unwillingness to fight against slavery is deplorable, but he seeded our democratic culture with his bold, innovative ideas. Perhaps some other schoolchildren might vote to rename their school for Thomas Jefferson after studying his life.
Joyce Appleby
Los Angeles
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