Editor’s note: The following is a letter to the editor. The opinions expressed in this letter are those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect those of The Mendocino Voice. If you would like to submit a letter to the editor feel free to write to info@mendovoice.com.
Dear Editor:
Fort Bragg is amazing. The Pacific Northwest is dotted with dying towns from mills closing and changing economies. Now Fort Bragg is not paradise, but boy, is it doing well. A combination of the grit and work ethic of the logging families that have stayed and the same for the fishermen, the immigrant population that replaced the loggers that left bringing new energy to the economy, and the new city folks and their entrepreneurial savvy have combined to make Fort Bragg a special story of success.
The city government has done a good job of leading the town through rough times. It has protected its Latino population with policies and adjusted the education system and managed to turn Fort Bragg into a tourist-based economy without turning into Aspen or Carmel-by-the-Sea. We are a town!
The name Fort Bragg now names a town that still has community, character, a harbor that is not full of yachts and a future. The name is no longer the name of an idiot general who was on the wrong side, it is the name of us! It is the name of success.
Please stop wringing your hands about the name. It is no more a name of a villain than the Tetons are really a line of big boobs.
Basil Casabona
Fort Bragg
FB has plenty of room for improvement. 🙂
My point is that name defininions and titles can change. Hester Prynne’s A came to mean able or angle and she started as someone who the people thought should burn in the fires of hell. What FB was given, what it faced, has come far enough the other way to ask if the name is the name of good people succeeding, with a food bank, and a senior center and now have an old name with a new meaning. We didn’t change the name of Russian Gulch because of the cold war.
Are you concerned the name change will tarnish FB’s reputation?
Why would this town honor someone who seceded from the union and fought to preserve slavery? It’s a contradiction to the beliefs of the people of FB today. It’s especially concerning for folks of color who would have been victims of this person’s legacy.
As far as “tarnish FB reputation” because of the name, I recently had a relative from Oregon come for a visit. When the town of Fort Bragg came up in conversation about tourist places, he wondered if there was a military commissary or a Post Exchange there.
The name only bothers the local libs. No one else cares.
This piece is so bad it’s good. LOL. More later…
Too bad Mr. Casabona was not smart enough to enter the Noyo Bida essay contest. It would have been an easy $1,ooo first prize in the “No Name Change” category of their contest ($500 for 2nd Place). Not one single person from the “Fort Bragg Forever” contingent was intelligent enough to pick up on this easy money by entering the opposing category – myself included.
angel
Hugh?
Why would anybody that doesn’t want the name changed participate in a contest put on by the con group. We don’t support their cause in any way, so why would we participate? For the money? I don’t think so.
You (I) could have written anything you want, and relieved their coffers of $1,500 – all while expressing the reasons Braxton would want this place named after him.
I doubt if he would have appreciated your high and mighty moral integrity.
Why would I care what Braxton Bragg would think he’s long dead. It’s the history of our town, people need to grow up and get over it and learn from it. Maybe you should talk to some of the local Pomo people that live here, the ones whose families were marched to Round valley and their Family members escaped and came back to Fort Bragg where they were protected from the military by the locals. I stand by my Pomo friends on this. I know the Cons don’t listen to them, and have never asked their opinion. The people I’m speaking of have lived and grown up in Fort Bragg and it was their families that were directly affected by what happened back then. They are the voices I support. So no I don’t support changing the name along with the vast majority of citizens. It’s history learn from it and move on.
Tell me you are magat without saying you are a magat.
Oh i get it. Keeping the name will brand us with Bragg’s guilt. We will all be in 2026 slave owners and be fighting for the gray. I am simply trying to find a rationale for seeking peace. And I did not pick the headline which caused some anger. My phrase came at the last and I said,”please.”
Finally, what is a magal?
People that have nothing better to say often use the term Magat, I guess because they can’t think of a response that makes sense. I don’t know why anybody would feel guilty about something we had nothing to do with. I guess some people just have to be miserable about something.
The history of Gen. Braxton Bragg in the Civil War was that he was hated by friend and foe alike. He was famous for going into battle with absolutely no strategic plan, and probably drunk. His only solutuin was to send wave after wave after wave of soldiers to their deaths under withering Union fire. Sound familiar?
Hey, I know – Let’s change our name to Fort Hegseth!
Nobody cares what happened during the Civil War and nobody cares if he was drunk. The area was known as Fort Bragg thats what everybody knew it as, before it was formally named Fort Bragg, so the name stood. Just because bad things happened in the past is not a reason to change it today. It’s history and whether it’s good or bad, people need to learn from it move forward and stop beating a dead horse.
You know, people down here in Albion call it Ft. Dragg, or sometimes just “The Dragg”. That’s been the case since at least the early 1970’s. I’m personally in favor of changing the name, but I don’t live in The Dragg, so I won’t have a say. I’m descended from Northerners, an have no respect for Braxton, whatsoever. He shouldn’t have a town here named after him.
Whoops, didn’t proofread, left the “d” off of and towards the end. I had two great grandfathers on my mother’s side, and one great great grandfather in the civil war. I’m also descended from a Quaker family who had a ‘station’ on the underground railroad. One of my great grandfathers enlisted along with his brother and 3 cousins, and of the five, was the only one to come back alive. They went to a church that was very opposed to slavery, and the church sent a large contingent to fight to free the slaves.
This topic is silly. Why do people think that renaming a town, park, school, hospital, or statue will change or erase parts of history? A lot of resources have been wasted here in the capital city renaming streets, parks, schools, etc. Did it change the past? Nope. Did it move hearts and minds? Nope. Just a lot of virtue signaling from people who feel guilty for something they had no part in.
Nobody believes that a name change will erase history. Many people believe that a namesake is an honor and that Braxton Bragg, no matter how long ago he lived, deserves no honor. The fort also ran a concentration camp of indigenous people and was very short lived and not representative of why the town is here, which has much more to do with lumber and ocean access. It is virtue signaling, but the kind that signals to black people that we are not Confederate sympathizers and reminds us every day that we have a good name and not one that gives us the ick.
For a while the sound of a needle scraching across a recourd was used to denote a foulup had occured on a TV show, But young people did not know that the reason the sound came from a real oh oh event They only knew what it ment. The sound had no other connection. THings change and become assocated with new ideas. Name meanings change. I only ask that this phenomema be examined as a part of the issue. Again the name is also the name of a town of overall good people.
The children of this town know more about the namesake(Braxton Bragg and the Fort) than previously generations ever did or cared to. Obviously if the name changed, the reason for it would carry on as a learning lesson of progress. There is no need to hold on to something just because you always have. We can’t go back and take away the over 100 slaves that Bragg had and fought to keep, but we don’t need to continue to honor his name in the future. This town deserves a better name, eventually, when the majority agrees.
I think all Italian food should be renamed because the Roman empire was a horrible thing. Britian should be renamed because of the slave triangle. Lake America (look it up) should be so named because the French used Indians to fight if the Seven Years War. I think Japan should be renamed because of ww2, I think the sicilian children should never forget what Richard the Lionheart did there on his way to Palestine. Boy, I feel better
Is anything in your life going to change when they change the name of Fort Bragg?
Basil…….GET A LIFE!!
I say, Change the Name, then Please let your next letter be Post Marked from HELL!!
escrow dec.1981 built houme 1982 half and half till’ 1987 bought stuff at Ben Frank’s and the Rexall got wood from mendocino redwood hungout at the Pine Beach Inn getting the point? But just for you Tim, just for you, I will mail my thoughts from hell.
California’s role between the Humboldt area and the Sonoma area during the Civil War focused on maintaining Union control and suppressing secessionist activity, with volunteer regiments recruited from pro-Union counties in Northern California to occupy Southern California and secure the region.
Wikipedia California State Portal
I get the reason for all who support not changing the name, me included. Heck, they have a lot to Bragg about. Beautiful town!