Local middle school should keep its name

Much controversy surrounds Wheaton's Col. Joseph Belt Middle School, scheduled to re-open this fall. Many PTA and community members argue that the school's name should be changed because Belt, a member of the Board of Education during the Colonial Era, was a slave owner.

By the same logic, our nation's capital would have to be renamed because Washington was a slave owner; Carnegie Hall and Rockefeller Center would have to be renamed because of those industrialists' immoral economic practices; and the dime would have to be refaced because of Roosevelt's internment of the Japanese. But these changes will never happen because these people are so prominent. Whoever heard of Joseph Belt?

It's easier to tamper with the legacies of lesser-known historical figures, but that is exactly why they need to be defended. If you take away the dime, people will still know who Roosevelt was, but if you rename Col. Joseph Belt Middle School, a piece of local history is erased from memory.

The point of history is not that we remember it fondly, but that we remember it accurately. Our country feels the inexplicable need to oversimplify itself, separating all good from all bad. Belt was a slave owner, but he was also an important educational figure, which is why a school is named after him. With Black History Month fast approaching, it is important to remember that there was a period in our country's history when even the most prominent and respected figures were slave owners. By denying Belt his legacy, we are denying that piece of history.

If the school was named after Belt to honor the fact that he owned slaves, then the name should clearly be changed. However, the school was named to honor Belt's accomplishments in education, and unless our society deems those accomplishments dishonorable, the name should stand.