Good Evening Fort Bragg Community

It is an honor and a privilege to be invited to speak here tonight.

Thank you, Phil, and Change Our Name Fort Bragg for Inviting me.

I grew up in a Big City where I did not know my neighbors and the idea of meaningful Citizenship and participatory democracy was a distant dream. My Wife and our Beloved Dog Denali have been welcomed with open arms here in Fort Bragg. We have found it to be a friendly, dynamic, hospitable, and inclusive place to live. We have been fortunate to meet and become friends with some of our neighbors. Walking through the Farmers Market on a Sunny or even a Foggy day has been inspiring. I find people to be open and interested in having a conversation, willing to say hello, and most importantly they look me straight in the eye and smile.

After living here for a relatively short time I have become active with a range of community groups including: Seniors on Bikes, the Afternoon Jam Band, Meadow Farm Community Land Trust, The Mendocino Coast Jewish Community, Transition Town Mendocino Coast, Three Jewels Dharma Hall, and the Grassroots Institute. I think something essential and wholesome is possible in a small Town like ours and in several ways, it is already happening.

I love Fort Bragg and there is a reason I am choosing to live here. I find it to be a welcoming place with stunning Natural Beauty. It is my hope to live the rest of my life in this community. I have been impressed by the Civil Discourse and respect that has been displayed during these gatherings. I sense that here in our small town these dialogues are vital and essential to a healthy community. It is possible for citizens in our community to have differing views on this issue while remaining friendly and productive.

I would like to Reiterate the Goals of “Change Our Name Fort Bragg”

Here are the Important Points

 

• Promote and make available an accurate History of our Town

• Increase the visibility and accessibility of this History through more 

interpretive signs 

• Advocate for better educational materials about this History in our local Schools

• Create a Pomo Cultural Center at the Old Mill Site

• Prioritize Land Back for the Local Pomo Indigenous Community and their 

continued stewardship of their ancestral Land

• Through Education and Community Discourse decide on a new name for our To

 

The factual argument in favor of a Name Change here in Fort Bragg has been made unequivocally, both on our website and by my fellow speakers. 

• The Fort was used to carry out Genocide and the displacement of indigenous people 

• Braxton Bragg was a racist, a slave order, and a Traitor 

• The cost of renaming the Town is not prohibitive 

• (State Funds will likely become available, and the Public Relation Benefits could potentially offset the cost)

• No Business or Individual needs to change their address or business name

• In this day and age, the name Fort Bragg is both offensive and insensitive

• to the brutal History of African Americans and Indigenous People in our 

• Country, and specifically here on the Mendocino Coast. 

We need to base our discussions on fact and Truth. We can acknowledge and accept that there is no ultimate objective Truth but rather that as a Society we base reality, policies, and communities on a consensus of what the Truth is to the best of our knowledge. These contain inherent biases, but this does not discount the Truth as we have collectively agreed upon. Social, Historical and Scientific Truths can be upheld, and this collective reality accepted with the understanding that if new factual evidence arises, we are free to change our views and policies. Our Country and World are in a perilous place when it comes to Truth, Facts, and Reality. I suggest we return to and depend upon rigorous scholarship, and reliable evidence to base our opinions and policies on.

At the last Teach-In Paula Goodwyn mentioned that we are winning the factual argument for a Name Change but not the emotional one. She also said that changing the Name of Fort Bragg is being equated with insulting the history and families of longtime residents. I would like us to consider how we can honor the feelings and sentiments of longtime Fort Bragg Residents while we explore changing the name of our town. I have listened carefully to my fellow citizens during these gatherings and heard a heartfelt plea to leave the name of Fort Bragg alone. 

I was walking my dog Denali a few weeks ago and I saw a sign in front of my neighbor’s house:

Fort Bragg, California across the top and then in the

Middle A BIG Red HEART with (Me + FB) in the Middle of the Heart. 

Underneath it read “Do NOT Change our Name” 

(At first glance I imagined I saw “Please Do NOT Change our Name”) This Please softened the request and led me to more deeply consider what someone who has lived here in Fort Bragg for Generations would think and feel about the proposed name change.

This is the heartfelt sentiment I have heard from some of my neighbors and from fellow citizens during these meetings. In their voices I have heard pain, anger, sadness, and fear that they will lose their history and that their ancestors will be dishonored in the process. Furthermore, I hear them saying between the lines and in their faces “Hey, you newcomers aren’t from around here, don’t change the name of our town, and don't change a culture you don’t fully understand and are just recently becoming part of. I believe this perspective needs to be taken in and considered.

What does it mean to welcome a newcomer? Who is the newcomer? How long does it take until you are a native? How will we welcome the new immigrants that arrive here in Fort Bragg over the next decades?

I propose that all of us, or at least our ancestors were at some time immigrants and strangers on this land.

I’m a currently a resident of Fort Bragg

I was born in Los Angeles

I’m a Californian

My Relatives are from Iowa, Alabama, Chicago, New York, and New Jersey

My Ancestors are from Russia and Poland

My Ancestors are from the Fertile Crescent

All our Ancestors are the Earliest Humans from Ethiopia

We are all related to a self-replicating strip of rna/dna in the primordial soup

We collectively come from stardust and an infinitesimal point of matter before the Big Bang

 

So, it really comes down to perspective. I believe it is important and helpful to see the larger scale of our relatedness. We are all newcomers from somewhere else at some time, and we are all kin from the same Human Family. This kinship should also include a celebration and acceptance of diversity.

Because we are all human beings no one should ever be subordinated or killed because of their race. This for me, is why it is so painful to know how we have treated our fellow human beings. Our evolutionary process as a species is in an adolescent stage and unless we address social and environmental injustices, we may not make it through to maturity and sustainability. This is indeed an existential Crisis. 

When these original Great Great Great…….Grandmother and Grandfather Homo Sapiens started to migrate to Asia and Europe their skin colors changed depending on their distance from the equator and the amount of sun they were exposed to. A multitude of languages and cultures emerged and were all worthy of respect. Unfortunately, our Towns Origins did not respect indigenous people or African Americans by their actions and then by naming the Town after Bragg.

In order to address racism, it will take turning inwards, and looking honestly and compassionately at ourselves and the culture we have here in Fort Bragg. Unfortunately, there is systemic racism right here in Fort Bragg. I present as a White Male and even though I did not create this system I have benefited and continue to benefit from it. I want to remedy this situation. I want to acknowledge this systemic racism and make amends. I suggest that many of us in this community could take responsibility for this system and work to change it. 

Even though we are challenging our Towns origin story and suggesting we take personal responsibility, we can still be proud of our past and respect our ancestors who worked hard to pave the way for us. Their adventuresome, pioneering, and resourceful nature remains a source of inspiration to those who live here in Fort Bragg.

My good friend summed this sentiment up perfectly:  “I think that the name change can be a way of acknowledging the history of this place both positive and negative, while at the same time respecting the opinions and history of the individuals that grew up here. “

I challenge all of us to examine and take stock of our values. I also challenge us to learn the history of our Town honestly and rigorously. I then suggest we ask ourselves if our Values are consistent with the name Fort Bragg and all it entails. If they are inconsistent, and it then makes logical sense to change the name, then what could be in the way of supporting a name change?

I am strongly in favor of Changing the Name of Fort Bragg. I believe that if done skillfully and with respect for longtime residents that we collectively have a lot to gain. This Name Change could potentially bring economic prosperity through increased tourism and foster social harmony within our town. This Name Change can begin the process of healing the tragic injustices of Racism and Genocide. We can create a community of inclusion, respect, healing, and justice.

One of my Teachers once told a story of a young student who came up to him: “I have this idea for an invention, and it could create World Peace. I call it the perspective helmet. You put it on, and you immediately get to see and understand the perspective on others”. This is the work of a lifetime for all of us. We need to continue cultivating our empathy and compassion so that we can, with a shift of perspective see and another’s perspective. If we can wake up in this way there are undreamed of levels of cooperation, healing, and prosperity available to us. We can wake up and this is a good thing. Let’s do this together.