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Editor-
I know I shouldn’t overreact to trolls like Michael Koepf, but I have to say I found his piece deeply offensive.
Now for his multiple misstatements of facts:
When he writes “He [Bragg] and his wife owned slaves before the Civil War.” Braxton Bragg was born into a slave-holding family. It is likely that, like other Southern gentlemen, a slave accompanied Bragg when he went to West Point and a slave waited upon him when he entered the Army as a First Lieutenant. When Bragg left the Army in 1856 he married a wealthy woman in Louisiana and used her money to purchase a large sugar plantation on which he worked 105 enslaved men, women, and children 6 days a week, 18 hours a day at harvest time, to make him one of the richest men in the state. The plantation and the slaves were in his name only as sole owners. Note that the US Army Fort Bragg in California was named for Braxton Bragg in 1857 while he forced other human beings to labor for his wealth. And our town was named Fort Bragg in 1889, 25 years after the Civil War, when everyone knew Bragg had killed an untold number of men in our own Army.
When he writes: “What about Boonville, obviously named for Daniel Boone?” Wrong. That little town was originally named the Corner and later incorporated as Kendalls City in 1864. “Soon after W.W.Boone bought the store of Levi and Straus and changed the name of the town to Booneville. The ‘e’ was dropped in the 1880’s.” [see California Place Names by Erwin Gudde, p. 43]. But the evolution of names in Boonville, mirrored in Elk (once Greenwood), Placerville (earlier Dry Diggings and Hangtown) and Springtown [formerly Confederate Crossing] does demonstrate the fluidity of names which change through history. Nothing, not even the name Fort Bragg is Forever.
Not for his hyperbole:
When he asks “are all the people in our town racists?” No one has ever made such a statement.
When he asks “do Confederate flags fly from city hall?” Why bother to fly a Confederate flag when the entire town is named for a Confederate general?
Not for his occasional truths:
When he writes: “most people born and raised in Fort Bragg, or arrived at some point in their lives, or rest peacefully in Rose Memorial Park, never heard of Confederate General Bragg.” This at first seems merely a gross deficiency in our public schools not teaching local history. How does one not know the history of their own town? But I think more is at work here; people do not know the history because the history was not taught because that history was so shameful it had to be hidden.
No, I take offense at his name-calling. Koepf returns to the schoolyard of my youth to make fun of the name Zwerling. I didn’t have it as bad as some friends like Bob Schmuck or Mary Gay but German names like Zwerling can be pronounced and mispronounced a’la Sergeant Schultz in Hogan’s Heroes. The one I remember best, or worst was Swirrrrrling. I know “sticks and stones…but names will never hurt me.” But they do, don’t they, Koepf? That’s why you wrote that. Zwerling is an unusual name in America. Its rarity made me uncomfortable and vulnerable as a child. Too many Zwerlings perished in the gas chambers of Auschwitz to make their (my) name a mockery today.
Koepf, misappropriating Shakespeare, asks “What’s in a name?” reminding us of Juliet when she says to Romeo:
“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.”
Most people, like Koepf stop there. But Juliet continued:
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call’d,
Retain that dear perfection which he owes
Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name;
And for that name, which is no part of thee,
Take all myself.” [Act II, scene ii]
For love, Juliet is asking Romeo to change his name. For love, she also offers to change her name. For love Fort Bragg should change its name: to make amends to the Indigenous people dispossessed and starved at the concentration camp called a Fort and to Black people traumatized by 400 years of slavery. Not for shame, or fear, or force, but for love.
After all, what’s in a name?
-Philip Zwerling
https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/328/079/3c9.jpg
@ 1:36am? A Snowflake should get some sleep.
Wow, channeling your inner Donald Trump, who has no affection for the disabled.
Tying a woke wagon to the Holocaust is…weak, pathetic and beside the point. I wish the old Tip Top was still there to join the bikers, mill worker, loggers, fishermen and those two shot Sallys who helped make Fort Bragg the stand-up working class town it once was, instead of what it has become: day care for the woke.
Could you please hold my blanket and juice box while I reach for your history book? Too woke again?
“Tying a woke wagon to the Holocaust is…weak, pathetic and beside the point.”
Michael, I have noticed a lot of people associated with far right social media and news sources, especially Fox News, use the word “woke”, and you have used this word several times in your previous posts. Do you even know what this word means? It seems nobody really knows what this word means, perhaps you should use other words that are more precise to better express what you are trying to say. Other much better writers than me have tackled this subject, for example in a Salon.com write-up by Amanda Marcotte: “Why the GOP is obsessed with “woke” — but can’t define it – MAGA can’t explain what “woke” is, but that’s the point. “Woke” is currently the favorite word of the right. Republican politicians can’t go more that 5 or 6 words without peppering “woke” into their sentences. Turning on Fox News, you’ll hear the word “woke” repeated ad nauseam, like a record skipping, but for hours at a time: “woke woke woke woke woke.” Everything is “woke”: Banks. Children’s books. The military. Disney. M&Ms. Super Bowl performances. To be a Republican in the year 2023 is to spend every waking moment outraged and terrified by “woke,” certain its wokey tendrils will snake their wokeness into your brain and woke-ify you into wokeitude.
But the funny thing about “woke” is that, while all Republicans hate it, they don’t seem to have any idea how to define it. That was hilariously demonstrated in a viral video clip of conservative author Bethany Mandel falling completely apart when asked in an interview to define “woke,” a concept she wrote an entire book denouncing. Mandel couldn’t do it.” https://www.salon.com/2023/03/16/why-the-is-obsessed-with-woke–but-cant-define-it/
Excellent point Wayne Morris Wilson. I don’t recall ever hearing the word “woke” before leaders and followers of the MAGA cult seem to have decided that it is a primary target of their rage. It’s curious that those who use the word are unwilling or unable to define it. So far as I’ve been able to learn, the term “woke” seems to have been used to describe the idea of: “liberty and justice for all,” at least that’s how it had been used before the MAGA’s started using it as a dog whistle. Maybe Michael Koepf would explain his dislike for the concept of liberty and justice for all ?
Someone who is “woke” is supposedly aware or has “woken up” to racial and social injustices in the United States – the idea that our laws and institutions uphold systemic inequality and injustice based on race, gender and sexual orientation and that these alleged injustices can be used perpetually by progressive, Caucasian Marxists to take power in America without the will of the majority. Thank you, Wayne for woken me up.
…”these alleged injustices can be used perpetually by progressive, Caucasian Marxists to take power in America without the will of the majority.”
Wow, Michael, you are one of those MAGA conspiracy theorists imagining that mean progressives or Marxists are going to somehow “take power” in some dark undemocratic fashion to what, put you in a concentration camp? Trump and his cult are truly brainwashed and many of them live in a shared delusional alternate reality in which progressives or Democrats have evil plans to subjugate conservatives or Republicans. I like the ring to this about your “woke” obsession: “wokey tendrils will snake their wokeness into your brain and woke-ify you into wokeitude.”
You lost me at treating Amanda Marcotte as a credible source.
Changing the name of Fort Bragg or any town or any institution is ridiculous. You can’t erase history. No one in this day and age associates names to slavery. And the people who you think this offends are too busy working and raising a family to be concerned with this nonsense. Get a hobby and stop worry about these useless things. If you need something to do, go volunteer somewhere or go build something or get your hands in the earth and do some gardening.
Want to contribute and convert your self imposed woke guilt to action? Go volunteer for the same town you hate the name of so much.
There’s an old saying: You should only worry about things that are in your control. The rest, don’t worry about. Have a smile and a coke and thank God you live in a country where you can get butthurt about the names of towns and who owned slaves way back when.
“There’s an old saying: You should only worry about things that are in your control. The rest, don’t worry about.” – I agree. Fort Bragg voters are in control of its own city name. The residence may choose what they want to call their own city which best reflects the values of the people in Fort Bragg.
“Changing the name of Fort Bragg or any town or any institution is ridiculous. You can’t erase history. No one in this day and age associates names to slavery.”
In fact, dozens of cities and towns around the nation and in California have changed their names, primarily cities or towns that were named after Confederates or had names that were associated with Confederate themes. So no, Greggg, it’s not unusual or ridiculous for this to happen. You must be living in a far right alternate reality right wing cocoon, unaware that many cities and towns and schools have had their confederate names changed such Fort Bragg North Carolina renamed Fort Liberty. Other cities named after Confederates that have new names: Fort Benning, Fort Hood, Fort Rucker, Fort Lee, and Camp Beauregard. Salinas’ California Confederate Corners renamed Springtown, Marin County’s Dixie School renamed in San Rafael. And Across the Country especially in states like Virginia hundreds of streets named after Confederates are being renamed or have been renamed, and hundreds of Confederate war memorials have been scraped for junk mostly across southern states because they are ugly reminders of slavery and the terrible damage done by the Confederacy.
So Greggg, get out of your informational cocoon and do some reading in reliable news sources such as https://anewscafe.com/ , New York Times, Propublica etc.
ny times the end all be all.
move back there.
ps great job Mike Koepf
Perhaps you’re jealous that the New York Times is the most prominent newspaper in the world with 10 million digital subscribers and an annual operating budget of $1billion. Winner of dozens of Nobel Prizes for investigative reporting.
“Move back there” – that’s what Trump says, often referring to his opponents as worthless from “shithole countries”.
not a chance.
my wife’s family lives in that toilet bowl.
i know what it is.
grew up in MA, 10 miles west of where Capt. Isaac Davis once marched.
look that detail up you pompous ass.
folks like you took NYC down from what it once was when Francis Scott Key observed a brave people… much like the patriots that are sitting in the DC gulags for political crimes of jan 6.
go back to NYC and thrive in that cess pool, the very one you Ms. Wilson have created.
Floyd, the insurrectionists should rot in prison! As well as the douche bag who incited the insurrection, the t-Rump!!
would love to see the look on your face when the pendulum rights itself.
All the examples you gave, I agree they should have ALL NOT changed their names and it’s a pity they did.
Who said anything about news sources? I’m just saying it’s a stupid thing that only white liberals worry about. It’s called virtue signaling and no one including the people you think this matters to appreciate it.
Cancel culture is real. This is ridiculous. We’re clearly in a different time and history shouldn’t be erased. No one is condoning slave ownership. No one is saying it was a good thing. But it was something that took place. It was everywhere in the world and there were slaves of every color, including white “Slav” slaves for millennia. This is where the name slave comes from. You can’t erase history with a name change. This battle is silly. Focus on the present. Volunteer in your community instead of whining about the past.
It’s about the future and a name that is welcoming to all, one we can be proud of
I’m not going to deny the horrible treatment the natives of the region had forced upon them, or discuss what Juliet said in Act II, scene ii, l am just going to ask a simple question?
If you and your defenders are as compassionate as you claim and truly want to help the indigenous people of the area, might I suggest you start with something that is entirely under your control, and give any land you currently own, back to its rightful owners.
Reading your words makes it clear that you as an educated person of high moral integrity must repatriate all personal land holdings to the “dispossessed indigenous people” you speak of. To fail to do so might even be considered, by many, as outright hypocrisy.
Might I suggest that you take it one step farther, and also encourage everyone involved with your group, to voluntarily relinquish their land holdings to the indigenous tribes of the area. A quick trip to the courthouse is all that’s required. Just imagine the feeling of pride you will all feel after such an unselfish sacrifice.
In the words of a wise man, who’s name escapes me, “don’t do it for shame, or fear, or force, but for love”
That would require them putting their money where their mouth is to speak. Actions speak louder than words and the only action they are willing to take is one that does not inconvenience them in the slightest.
Changing the name is symbolic. That doesn’t make it wrong. This town deserves a better name.
You are a good analytical writer with and clearly educated. Very good work.
Seems like a lot of people have some opinions on leaving the name Ft. Bragg or in changing it to something else. Why hasn’t anyone put it on the ballot? How many signatures does it require for a city wide vote? If enough people don’t sign the petition, there’s the answer. If it goes to a vote then what is the margin to win? Besides these questions answered, the whole discussion on the internet is just a waste of electricity.
It will go on the ballot when there’s believed to be a majority. Now is the time for information and discussion.
“believed to be a majority”Lol..A majority of what? Petitions need to be filed with the required number of signatures to get on a ballot. You really didn’t answer the question.
Personally, the real annoying thing about things like this is that it’s coming from someone who just moved here recently. Why even move here if the name bothered you so much? People that have lived here their whole lives have been too busy trying to make a living in a place that has lost ALL its main industries. On top of that, young generations end up having to move away because they can’t afford housing on service job pay. Housing that continues to increase in price because of people moving here after they retire from well paying jobs elsewhere. You see it in many small communities, not just Fort Bragg, they move in then spend all their free time trying to change things to their liking. Worse yet, they want to stop all progress (ie jobs) because they don’t want to lose that small town feeling they moved to. They’re like anchor tourists.
As someone who has lived here for twenty years, I have always disliked the name. We can work together on issues like jobs, housing and water. The name change will either happen someday or not, regardless.
It’s only because Braxton Bragg is somewhat lesser known that people are okay with keeping the name. I didn’t think that we should change the name at first, but after listening to both sides of the agrument, I’ve changed my mind. We should change the name! It’s a poor choice of name, it happed by hapstance, and it honors a terrible person. If the town were called Hitlerville, we’d change it. I really don’t see much difference. Both Hitler and Bragg were racists who fought against our nation and lost. Personally I like the name Mendonesia, but whatever we decide to call it has got to be better. Changing the name won’t erase the history, nor diminish the community ties and memories we have. Sure there will be some cost involved with this, but hoestly it’s minimal. Especially if you consider the potential positive effect of free publicity and increased tourism. I’ll probably regret saying anything because this is such a divisive an heated issue. But it’s my opinion and I’m entitled to it, the name will change eventually.
*honestly…
Well written comment. Because of first amendment rights, businessess can keep Fort Bragg as part of their business name, if they use it. You have probably heard that Fort Bragg has the only schools, the high and middle schools, that are named after Confederate traitors. Philip Zwelling has organized an essay contest open to the students at Fort Bragg High School with a $2000 first prize regarding whether or not the citizens of Fort Bragg should change the name of the city to something else. Judges will be independent writing experts with no ties to Philip Zwerling or his non-profit organization that is investigating why and how Fort Bragg got stuck with the name of a Confederate traitor and related issues of efforts to exterminate the native Indians.
You know, there’s a creative solution to all this that sidesteps a whole lot of BS. Consider the example of King County, Washington. King County was named in the 1850s for then Vice President William Rufus King, a southern politician and slaveholder. So what did King County do when in 1986, this was seen as kind of a shameful person to honor? They officially redesignated Martin Luther King as their namesake – they kept their old name and changed the legacy to honor someone more deserving. So here’s an idea, Fort Bragg – I propose a motion that the official namesake of Fort Bragg be changed from Confederate General and slaveholder Braxton Bragg to Union Col. Edward S. Bragg. The name Fort Bragg stays, it’s origin still obscure and largely uncared-about by locals, but with no offensive memorialization for those who care to dig into such things. Can we shake and spit on that?