To the editor:
I urge our school board to be very careful in selecting a new name for T.C. Williams High School. Yes, I agree it should be done, but please do not replace his name with any other.
Our country is suffering from this era of identity politics, and any name will undoubtedly not just divide our community, but also divide groups within our community. Why this person and not another?
Our country desperately needs leaders who will commit to value politics, not identity politics. Our American values, which even our Founding Fathers recognized were ideals we must constantly strive for, have fallen into serious disrepair. Now is the time to repair and recommit to those values.
Of course, we could take the neutral route, as was done in renaming Jefferson Davis Highway as Richmond Highway. But I would prefer we follow the example of Fairfax County renaming J.E.B. Stuart High School as Liberty High School.
I urge the school board to move swiftly before Fairfax County renames Robert E. Lee High School after another of our cherished values: Freedom.
Consider the beauty of moving from being The Titans of T.C. Williams to The Titans of Freedom. This value, sadly, remains an ideal for far too many of our citizens. Let’s move now so that generations to come will strive to reach and maintain freedom as a core value that is real to all our citizens, not just an ideal.
-Jim Larocco, Alexandria
