History is written in stone

Friday, July 30, 2004


Several articles have been in the news recently about a certain "Jap Road" in rural Texas and the name-change debate it's at the center of.

It was named Jap Road sometime in the 1900s after a Japanese family that lived there and brought rice farming to the area. Activist groups have been trying to change the name for over a decade, and the issue finally came to a head recently.

Alternate possibilities included "Mayumi Road", the name of the Japanese family this whole thing started over. Many residents didn't want to change the name from Jap Road, saying that it was originally meant to honor the Mayumis living there, and it's part of history.

Personally, I agree. If it's part of the history of the region, why change it? It wasn't considered politically incorrect at the time. Leave Jap Road up there, leave those Stars and Bars over the state capitol. I wouldn't touch those burned-out crosses on the front lawn, either. Leave that fourteen-year-old negro boy swinging from the tree; it's part of history and it'll just help us better understand our past. Ah, the good old days of racist bastards getting their way.  I'll always remember those times of intolerance and hatred with a fond place in my heart... I especially want to pass those feelings on to my children. Way to go.



 
Too bad we have to lose this vital bit of history forever.

 

Forced to come up with an alternative, The 170 residents who live on the road voted to change the name not to Mayumi Road, but Boondocks Road, after the Boondocks fried catfish restaurant that closed down 10 years ago. Their reason?


Mayumi is too hard to pronounce.


Perhaps as an alternative to Boondocks road, they might consider something even easier to spell and comprehend, such as "Dirt Road", "Dumbass Lane" or "Third-grade Reading Level Way".

Hell, why not just "The Road"? Keep it simple. If these residents remember the name of a fried catfish shack that closed 10 years ago, I'd wager the farthest they'll ever travel is probably to the county courthouse for that next DUI hearing. "The Road" will probably be identifiable enough.


Wayne Wright, one of the more outspoken residents of Public Education Road, had a few parting comments:

"They (Japanese Americans) pounded on us for 11 years. I hope they learned something from it. There's no winners in this."

You sure showed them! "Boondocks" really sticks it to 'em! I bet those Japanese-Americans are just reeling from that severe blow. As we speak, they're probably rowing back to their homeland, preparing to seppuku themselves in shame as soon as they hit the beaches.


There are winners, Wayne. They won. They beat you. They got you into the national news, flaunting an education that my five-year-old neighbor would be embarrassed of. The entire country now sees that your flummoxed cranium is so overworked in the daily chores of eating, breathing and pinching a loaf that you can't figger where that pesky i at the end of Mayumi gets its sound from.

They learned something from it all right, Wayne. If they're patient, you handle the ridicule all on your own.

posted by Scotty 2-shots at 12:53 AM