Supporter Statements
“I am very much in agreement with the name change, because I and my wife Sheryl have been working with Lakota people for the last 40 years. Myself as a teacher and coach for the last 36 years on the reservation and off at two institutions, Director of Education at the Chamberlain Academy Juvenile Correction School for 10 years and St. Joseph’s Indian School for the last 17 years. My wife just retired from Indian Health Service for the Department of Defense for the last 33 years as an RN nurse and a Director of Nursing at the Lower Brule Indian Health Service. We both believe the name change is very important to show the respect to the indigence people in our country. I have wore clothing with the Columbus logo on it to work and I have had different comments made by people I work with who are both non-Indian and native people. Please let us know if we can help with this campaign. We believe that with our experience we can maybe help you with this quest. Thank you for your effort.”
David Baldwin
Class of 1978
“As a graduate of Columbus High, I am very grateful for the education I received there. As a high school history teacher for 35 years, however, I am deeply troubled by the fact that my school was named for a person who committed unspeakable acts of torture, slavery, and genocide. Just as our nation is realizing that naming towns, schools, and other institutions after traitors who attempted to destroy this country during the Civil War, it is necessary for us as Catholics to acknowledge the wrongs that have been done on behalf of our religion. Part of that, to my mind, includes removing the names of people like Columbus from our schools. Frankly, I am embarrassed when friends ask me what school I attended, not because of the school, but solely because of its name. Please change it.”
Sincerely,
Gerald (Jerry) Cavanaugh
Class of 1967
“The Catholic Church administration has been offered the chance to correct a wrong; a wrong that challenges the social justice teachings of this ancient institution. It is time to stop honoring those Europeans who were proven to have decimated thousands of native people in their greedy quest for land It is beyond time to change the name of Columbus High School. Let us give this honor to someone worthy, someone who has lived social justice and suffered for it.”
Judith Condon
Class of 1967
“The reason I think we should change the name from Columbus, aside from the indigenous issues, is that he was not a saint and what distinguished him had nothing to do with the church. So I would prefer to have a name that recalls God, or Mary, or a saint.”
Mary Dutcher
Class of 1966
“I devoted my career in large part to education and research about race relations. I taught courses in race and ethnic relations for more than 30 years, and authored a leading college textbook on Majority-Minority Relations that was published in six editions. I did this because I believe that if people become knowledgeable about the history of racism and about how it works and how it has kept people of color in disadvantaged positions through no fault of their own, they will become motivated to fight racism and work for a more fair society. Given this, I can no longer remain silent as more and more knowledge has emerged about Christopher Columbus and his behavior toward and harm done to Native Americans. Knowing that there is always a backlash when you question a tradition, such as the name of a school, I remained reticent longer than I probably should have. But I can no longer accept having my school named for someone who tortured and abused people and participated in slave trade, and who in large part laid the groundwork for abusive treatment of native peoples throughout the Americas. This is not about disloyalty to my school. It is exactly the opposite: I love my school too much to have it named for someone who committed such evils as the person for whom it is currently named.”
John Farley
Class of 1967
“While I was a student at St. Patrick School in Cedar Falls in the 1950s and early 1960s, the sisters and lay teachers I had reminded me that a regular examination of conscience was necessary if I hoped to live a good and righteous life. My personal approach to such an examination was to weigh my acts and thoughts since my last examination usually in preparation for going to confession before our school’s First Friday Mass. The examination of conscience practice works well for life beyond confession and Holy Mass. The discussion raised concerning Columbus High School’s name certainly benefits from such an examination both personal and institutional.
We are told that the founders of the high school enshrined Columbus because of his exploratory prowess hoping to inspire the CHS students to be equally adventuresome in their pursuit of learning. An added benefit was the convention that the explorer brought Roman Catholicism to the “New World” which was felt to be a good thing. Over time, scholarship has revealed the darker elements of Columbian exploration and exploitation. His voyages initiated a westward explosion of European exploration, conquest, and proselytizing. The benefits to Europeans were great in both treasure and opportunities to relieve population/political pressure in the “Old World.” Much has been written for those curious to know more about the problematic nature of Columbus and the resulting use of his name for towns, businesses and, in our case, schools. We have so much history to cover in our schools that a careful examination of the Age of Exploration no longer receives much attention. As a result, we depend on our traditional view of what happened in 1492 and after which glosses over the problematic nature of Columbus and his voyages.
For those who feel that changing the name of our Catholic High School somehow denies our values or besmirches our faith, I encourage an examination of conscience. The good work our high school students, teachers, and administrators do every year does not depend on the name of a fifteenth century explorer. The choir, drama, music, athletic programs and Coded Collective owe their success to good teaching and a calling to live out the values of a “Christ-centered learning environment” not a Columbus-centered one.
I encourage those who care about Catholic education in the Cedar Valley to read the materials in our website, complete a personal examination of conscience, and then act to select a more appropriate name for our high school.
Michael Hustedde
Class of 1968
“In addition to the other issues connected with Christopher Columbus, I think the matter of "witness value" is very important in dropping his name from the school. When we watch statues of Confederate generals being removed in southern states, how can we not make a comparable move with a Catholic school name? The Witness Value of such a move would be so powerful I think. The public would see that we are serious and consistent in Catholic Social Justice Teaching.
I taught Religion (Theology) at Columbus from 1959 to 1963 and I tried to get across to students a respect and love of neighbor for Native Americans, Black people and all people. What is taught in the classroom needs to be lived and witnessed to the world if we are going to be authentic to what the Catholic Church purports to stand for. I want people of Waterloo and elsewhere to say: Good for you Catholics! You are doing the right thing and modeling an important value for us!”
Blessings on the project,
Father George Karnik
“In my statements to and about the Cedar Valley Catholic School administration, the archdiocese of Dubuque and in a letter to the Waterloo Courier I have stated that the continued use of the name Columbus on a Catholic school was inconsistent with the teaching I had received during 12 years of Catholic Education in Waterloo.
In retrospect I may have overstated that case. It did not take 12 years. Several years ago, there was a television show entitled: “Are you smarter than a 5th Grader?” I believe that if I was presented the facts as a 5th grader and was asked to act on the case for retention; I would be principled enough to say that “NO… honoring someone who was a slave trader, killer and had zero human compassion for the natives he encountered upon arriving at what he mistakenly thought was India does not deserve any honor… only disdain.
I then realized that shop lifting was wrong, lying was wrong, cheating was wrong, hurting others was wrong. So, I feel safe that I would have known that honoring the individual that endorsed slavery, rape, human mutilation, theft, and murder was beyond the teachings of my religion.
I was taught well but wonder what lesson is now being endorsed. I have arrived at my conclusion. But let me ask…are you more principled than a 5th grader?”
Tim Lane
Class of 1967
“There are seven Catholic High Schools in the Archdiocese of Dubuque, Iowa: Beckman, Don Bosco, Marquette, Newman, Wahlert, Xavier, and Columbus. Only one is named after a man who began the slave trade in the New World. Only one is named after a man whose own journals convict him of rape, torture, murder, and enslavement of over 5000 Taino Natives on the islands of Dominica, Cuba, and other of his “discoveries”. Only one is named after a man who had two priests with him on his four voyages to the New World, who both documented their horror and outrage at his exploitation and depraved cruelty toward the innocent islanders that he and his men devastated.
The school named after this reviled killer? Columbus High School in Waterloo, Iowa.
I call on Archbishop Jackels to right this wrong and change the name of Columbus High School.
Did you know that Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa, has had seven different names since its founding in 1839?
Here are a few: St. Raphael’s Academy, Mount St. Bernard’s College, St. Joseph’s College, Dubuque College, Columbia College, and in 1939, Loras College. That name may soon be changed as Loras College’s namesake, Bishop Loras, has been found to have owned a woman as a slave from 1836 to 1852. He actually leased her out to others and received rent payments for her. Tsk tsk. His statue was removed from the Loras College campus on 9-8-2020 after his own historical ledgers convicted him. Look for a new name #8 for Loras College in the future.
And it is time to move on to a new name for Columbus High School. The colors, mascot, team names, etc., can all remain the same.
I learned critical thinking at Columbus High. And racial equity. And social justice. I am asking Archbishop Jackels to do what our teachers at Columbus High taught us to do. Right the wrongs. When we know better, we do better. Let us reach a consensus and fix this inequity. Change the name of Columbus High School.
Fair winds, dear Sailors.
Debbie Lanich
Class of 1967
When the RedSkins changed their long held name I knew it was time for Columbus to do the same. I first learned of the atrocities committed by Columbus during the 1992 Quincentennial, in Rethinking Columbus, a book published by Rethinking Schools. I sent copies to the Columbus Board of Education suggesting this name did not reflect the values I was taught at CHS, but did not pursue the issue. I had four wonderful years at the school and still care enough about it to join this effort now.
Connie Hohlfeld Molbeck
Class of 1965.
“1492 An Historical Poem” by Denny McCabe
You remember hearing as well as I do,
of a famous voyage on the ocean blue.
Columbus and other men of his ilk.
Sought a new route to the spices and silk.
He’d sail west to go east ‘cause the world it was round;
So when three ships set sail they were westerly bound.
A discovery they called it when they finally knew,
that ole Chris hadn’t gotten where he’d set out to.
A discovery they called it, but who called it that?
“Indians” here, knew where they were at.
The Tainos to welcome, out did they swim,
and later they came bearing gifts to him.
Columbus called them gentle and kind,
“They’ll do what we was, and won’t even mind.”
But the visitor’s demands daily increased,
The natives wondered, when would they cease?
Our “hero” had promised the Queen lots of gold,
I’m afraid his predictions were just a bit bold.
He also told of the souls he would save,
Isn’t it strange that he made those souls slaves?
Taino culture began to vanish,
Due to the lust and the greed of the Spanish.
Taino people had much cause to cry,
It got to the point where they wanted to die.
Yes, we all remember 1492,
But it’s time to remember the Tainos too.