My alma mater, Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon has chosen to distance the school from its namesakes. In the 2024 Fall issue of the Lewis and Clark magazine, Robin Holmes-Sullivan, the first woman, first person of color, and the first openly LGBTQ person to hold the position of president of the college, announced a decision to retire the school mascot in favor of “one that the entire community can embrace.” This decision was based on the work of a committee of 21 Lewis and Clark community members who recommended that a new mascot be found that students would “more wholeheartedly support.” A survey of more than 7,000 participants showed that only 18% of current students thought that the current mascot was appropriate for the college. President Holmes-Sullivan said that “it’s important for current students to have a mascot they are proud of.”
A mascot they are proud of… and what exactly is this mascot that they are not proud of? The Pioneer.
Meriwether Lewis and William Clark were pioneers. Lewis and Clark College would not exist without the pioneers Lewis and Clark and other pioneers who explored our country. There wouldn’t even be such a thing as a college in North America without European pioneers and settlers. The school is not doing its job by not passing on the appreciation of Western Civilization to Western students if only 18% understand the greatness of the American pioneers.
The school has succumbed to the pressures of political correctness, the immoral movement designed to restrict speech by declaring that particular views are acceptable and opposing views forbidden. The forbidden view in this case is that the pioneers Lewis and Clark were good men who opened up the west to the United States early in its founding. The acceptable view is that white Europeans were bad people who stole land from the Indians. Therefore, pioneers were bad. If Holmes-Sullivan is serious, she should just shut the doors since books and learning, education, and especially higher education, are a white European construct. It is ironic that her position depends upon generations of Europeans and then American settlers building our civilization. Her entire job is a result of the peoples she so casually betrays, and allows the students to remain ignorant of.
Students who have studied what actually happened in early American history know that at that point in time the Indians had no concept of individual rights. Most of them had no concept of permanent land ownership. Tribes wandered around from place to place and often warred with each other over territory, taking each other as slaves. Moving around an area of the continent does not entitle anyone to ownership of land. In order to own land, one needs to settle in one place. Property rights need to be recognized and respected by other people; it requires a society that recognizes individual rights so that people are not constantly at war with each other. You can’t establish property rights until created, acknowledged, and backed up by society.
It was the Europeans who brought the ideas of the Enlightenment to this continent -- the ideas that individuals have rights to their life, liberty, the pursuit of their happiness, and including rights to property. The new country they created, the United States, was based on those ideas, and it was the recognition and acceptance of the rights of individuals that led to a civilized country, a country whose people no longer killed each other over disagreements and disputes about land. This is something we can be proud of. Americans should appreciate the civilization that developed here, and appreciate those pioneers, who trudged forward in a mostly empty, barren land to establish and build a free, prosperous, and civilized country.
Recently, the college has announced the eight mascot finalists that will be voted upon: cascades, herons, lynx, mammoths, pronghorns, river otters, river hawks and timber wolves. How exciting. None of these choices say anything about the college’s namesakes. Or anything about their expedition for that matter.
The proper purpose of education is to teach students how to think critically by using objective criteria (e.g. reality and reason). Learning how to think cannot be accomplished by mind control techniques such as political correctness because students only learn one point of view, and are not exposed to differing views. Often the “facts” they are taught are twisted or changed. The point that only 18% of the current students think that the Pioneer mascot is appropriate for the college is pathetic. Shame on the college for not educating its students about the accomplishments of the Lewis and Clark expedition. American students have a right to understand and appreciate the greatness of their forefathers, the founders and peoples who settled the freest country on Earth. Foreign students are being cheated out of freedom icons to look up to as they learn and understand all that was involved in creating a civilized country and being free. An American college, named after our greatest explorers (two men incidentally who gave an Indian woman an equal vote during the expedition), who refuses to accept that its very namesakes are good is an absolute outrage.
Changing the mascot illustrates ignorance of our country’s history and a disregard for the accomplishments of all the pioneers who have moved our country forward in the context of that period of time and development. It also illustrates cowardice in the face of anti-Western Civilization rhetoric. It is a disgrace to the memory of Lewis and Clark and our country’s history and the generations of students who have passed through those halls and gone on to contribute to the further development of our great nation.
It doesn’t matter if the entire community can embrace the school’s mascot. Courage is the ability to stand up for what is right in the face of adversity. The book Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose tells the story of Lewis and Clark venturing into dangerous territory. Now the college, named after those pioneers, needs to live up to the courage in that book, venture into the territory of reality, and stand for the truth.
About the author: Charlotte Cushman is a Montessori educator and authored Montessori: Why It Matters for Your Child’s Success and Happiness, Effective Discipline the Montessori Way, Your Life Belongs to You, and Save Montessori from Social Justice: Woke Montessori Schools are Betraying the Teachings of Maria Montessori. She has been involved in the study of Ayn Rand’s philosophy since 1970. Her book website is Cushmanbooks.com and her opposition to social justice in Montessori website is authenticmontessorieducation.com.
Image: Public Domain