Writer offers thoughts on offensive names

To The Eagle:

I have read with interest and concern regarding the topic of change to a few of our local landmarks. I understand the implication of prejudice, and I am in some agreement with that consensus. I also know that names tacked on to what began as neutral names for these areas were not intended to be offensive, unless naming a particular area of a river entry populated by large amounts of hungry birds is considered offensive. I have listened to and participated in a few of the conversations in which the name Jim Crow seems to be a catalyst of heated debate.

I have also noted misprints in both the Wahkiakum Eagle and Longview Daily News newspapers that stated Commissioner Cothren, and perhaps other of our county commissioners, had direct communication with Senator Pramila Jayapal of Seattle (King County), after her review of geographic names that may be considered racist and concerning the subject of derogatory geographic names in Wahkiakum County. I have noted that in at least one of our Wahkiakum commissioner meetings, where the conversation on this subject was introduced, Commissioner Cothren assured the public that he would not want our residents and those traveling through our county to feel as if they are being discriminated against or would be open to change.

I also understand that several suggestions have been tossed around as replacement names for these areas. The original Crow Creek no longer seems suitable to some. I am in favor of making everyone comfortable with Wahkiakum County and all that it offers us and those who visit our beautiful area. I do have a personal interest in the exclusion of the name, or even the inference of the name Jim Saules. Mr. Saules led a documented, questionable life, even during the tremulous time he lived. I question why anyone would celebrate a man who "jumped ship" among other illegal activities. But the one thing that burns close to my heart is the passage that Ms Zimmerman, in her well-written Wahkiakum Eagle article on Jim Saules, shared with readers where Mr. Saules was never tried for the expected/suspected homicide of his Native American wife because "Indians were of no value." I know I am not the only person in this county who is of Native American Heritage, and I am more certain that I am not the only wife.

All considered, I never the less caution our community not to try to hide or forget the past mistakes of our people and our nation. At present we deal with the Iranian declarations that the Holocaust never happened. Talk of wiping out any evidence of Nazi concentration camps is making headlines. When we have every horrible prejudiced, inconceivable historical event removed from our history books, who in the future will believe that these events really occurred and aren't just campfire stories passed down from their ancestors and blown off as fiction? Let us not conceal our past, but rather learn from it.

Paula Cothren

Cathlamet