To the Journal editor:

I graduated from Graveraet in 1962. My husband taught at Marquette Senior High School for 25 years and was assistant principal for four years. My four children graduated from MSHS. All were proud to represent MSHS as Redettes and Redmen.

I support keeping the Redmen name. In all of my 75 years in this community, I have never believed Marquette Redmen was a racist term. I became aware of the term racist in connection to MSHS when I was informed that teachers had called students “racists” and threatened lawsuits against them for wearing school spirit apparel. Why would any adult stoop to this despicable behavior?

I retired after 29 years owning Marquette Embroidery. I embroidered and lettered thousands of items with the name Redmen and Redettes. I did it with pride knowing that these items would be worn to proudly represent our great school.

I believe that the research committee could have been more fairly appointed. At least two members were pushing for a name change before the committee even started “researching.” Were you positive that at least two of the remaining members did not want the name changed so that the committee could begin their research as a group that would be fair to “both sides?”

In the committee’s recommendation report, one of the arguments to keep the name Redmen was that many Native Americans wanted to keep the name. I was abhorred with the counter-argument. I am going to rephrase the argument and the counter-argument to emphasize the absurdity of this counter-argument.

Argument: There are women that believe it is an honor and a good thing to be a Redette.

Counter-argument: This is the “good women” phenomenon. There have always been women who have been presented with oppression in our society and some respond to it by siding with the oppressor. These are what are known as the “good women.” They are thought of as the ones that want to get along and go along with the status quo. The only reason that the “good women” say that they want to be Redettes is because they have been oppressed. These women can not be trusted.

By substituting women for Native American, I felt the degradation Native Americans who would like to keep the name Redmen must have felt when they read the counter-argument.

I urge you to end this ordeal. Don’t spend time and money “fixing” something that isn’t broken.

PEARL LARSON

Marquette