So now they are going to censor people's names??? WTF? A reverend in South Dakota wants a street renamed that was originally named after a Civil War general named Hooker. There are many "Hookers" listed in the phone book of many towns across the country, and even in other parts of the world . Will these religious folks who find the word "hooker" offensive want all these people named Hooker to change their family name? What about folks with the last name Hell, Butts or Dick and other names that might be "offensive" to others? What about those like this man named "Woodcock" who was refused a Microsoft Passport account because his last name was "too offensive"? These people really need to get their minds out of the gutter!South Dakota town may rename Hooker St.
WHITEWOOD, S.D. - If the Rev. David Baer has his way, the Whitewood City Council will change the name of one of the northern Black Hills town's streets.Hooker Street doesn't quite lend itself to a family atmosphere and is offensive to some residents in the town of about 800 people, according to Baer.
It's actually named after a Union general from the Civil War, but Baer said that even renaming it to General Hooker Street might not be much better.
Any renaming would affect one resident and six water bill accounts, said Brenda Lindstrom, Whitewood city finance officer.
The council is expected to discuss the request its Dec. 17 meeting.
9 comments:
That would be quite funny if it wasn't so stupid & sad....
I'll have to agree with this one. This is completely rediculous.
cyberkitten, and if they pass it to change the name of the street, that is one town that I am glad I do not live in. It's full of idiots.
Mysterium Tremendum,
Hi Cole, I see you gave yourself a fancy, new mysterious name. ;-)
hahahah
Yes I did.
In my editing of my comment, I accidentally deleted David Baer's comment...my apologies:
David Baer wrote:
Thanks for noticing our small town and the serious discussion we are having about our street names.
I’m the pastor mentioned in the stories and criticized on this site.
The suggestion for the change in street name came from a group of Whitewood citizens who have been meeting for several months to work to better our community. It is part of a program called Horizons that seeks to help small communities with a significant percentage of disadvantaged citizens.
You can read about Horizons at
http://www.nwaf.org/Programs.aspx?pg=Programs/Horizons.htm
You can read about the local Horizons project and other community activities at the Horizons Blog:
http://whitewood.communityblogs.us/
This group is working in many areas in our community. One thing they suggested was that this street name was not appropriate or helpful to our community. Among the reasons offered for changing the street’s name, people talked about the hurt caused to a young girl who might have to explain that she lives on Hooker Street. They also thought that potential businesses and new residents might balk at a Hooker Street address.
We consulted our local postmaster and learned that only one person receives mail with a Hooker Street address. Like many small towns, most people receive mail at post office boxes. The postmaster said that the change could be made easily and with little disruption to that one customer.
I agreed to take the concern to the city council. I knew that folks might sensationalize and trivialize this matter — especially with a pastor asking that something called “Hooker” be changed. I thought it was worth the potential personal embarrassment to help our community improve itself. (I’m not so sure any more.) The news media certainly managed to sensationalize and trivialize this matter on a grand scale.
Suggestions for the street name change included using General Hooker’s first name and calling the street Joseph Hooker Street so that he would still be honored but any potentially offensive or embarrassing reference would be eliminated. Children might even learn that he was a general during the Civil War.
If you want to read an accurate portrayal of what is happening, check out this article from our local newspaper.
http://www.lawrencecountyjournal.com/articles/2007/11/27/lawerence_county/headlines/doc4743490cde09d963439868.txt
It may be fun to poke fun at a pastor and to use this opportunity to belittle traditional values and Christianity, but most of those in our community suggesting this change were not thinking from a Christian perspective. They were thinking about what living on a street called Hooker could mean for a young girl and whether a business would want to locate on a street with that name.
The experience in watching the news media and others misrepresent what is happening in Whitewood shows the power of words to hurt others or to help them. That is the reason we are discussing the possibility of changing the name of the street – because some words can be hurtful to others.
Pastor David Baer
Whitewood, SD
David Baer wrote: This group is working in many areas in our community. One thing they suggested was that this street name was not appropriate or helpful to our community. Among the reasons offered for changing the street's name, people talked about the hurt caused to a young girl who might have to explain that she lives on Hooker Street.
Wow, so much effort should be put into feeding the hungry and helping the poor and sick! Seeing how many Xians there are in the world, and with all their claims to do "good" for society, there should be no hunger, homeless or poor people. But instead you focus on appearances, your churches that are no more than country clubs for yourselves.
First of all, these people are teaching their daughters to be weak and instilling a victim mentality. You as a leader could change that thinking if you wanted to. You have the “respect” to turn this into a positive and get your people’s minds out of the gutter. Why do you always prefer to think like victims? Don’t tell me you don’t. I was a Xian for more than three decades, and it is quite depressing. You are bad, we are bad, the world is bad…WORDS are bad . . .and now NAMES are bad!
Is your town that full of dirty-minded and easily offended individuals? They better toughen up their kids if they ever want them to be able to cope in the REAL world someday.
Hooker is just a name. I would teach my kids about the General the street was named after and educate them and you don’t need to change the name to “General Hooker Street” to do that. Turn it into a positive and stand up for something for crying out loud! Your god isn’t able to help them cope with teasing about a street name? That’s because YOUR GOD ISN’T REAL…and religion focuses on the negatives of society.
Also, what about people named Hooker? What if a girl fell in love with a man named Hooker, Butts, Crapp, Woodcock, Glasscock, Roach, Bumpass, Buzzard, Hell, Hyman, Hogflesch, or any of the other odd names that might get your dirty minds going?
Should all these people change their family names just so some dirty-minded people aren't offended? That is totally ridiculous.
All this attention to a name of a street when people are dying from hunger, poverty, war… Children continue to be abused...abandoned, orphaned from the effects of poverty and war.
Unreal.
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