The Board of Trustees of the University of Maine should have employed some basic 101 research and fact checking before they unanimously voted to remove the name of Clarence Cook Little from a building on the University of Maine campus. Let’s ignore the fact that he went on to help found world-renowned Jackson Labs in Bar Harbor.

Eugenics as a social philosophy, sadly, was part of our history in the early 20th century. It was promoted by other individuals as well – do the names Margaret Sanger, Helen Keller, Teddy Roosevelt, W.E.B. Du Bois, Alexander Graham Bell and Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. sound familiar?

Do we erase all the accomplishments and good works of these persons because of their philosophical views? Do we dismantle Planned Parenthood, or the American Federation of the Blind? Or how about everyone being forced to give up their cellphones due to Bell’s role in inventing the telephone?

Mary R. Norton
South Portland


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