J.J. Clarke's Nickname

[rhettyeakley]

This is simple revisionist history, which seems to be all the rage these days.

Why do people call him that? Because that was how he was known during his lifetime (whether you agree with it or not).

This may come as a shock to some but some really crappy things happened in history! Racism, genocide, rape, murder, etc all happened then and some continue to happen to this day. I have no problem with historical events being reinterpreted base upon the framework of our current knowledge and understanding BUT I have major issues with people coming in a century or two later and changing names and places because it "sounds bad" or "that shouldn't have happened that way". The problem with that logic is that IT DID HAPPEN and historical fact should be left alone.

We tend to look at history through the lens of how things are viewed today, which can be very enlightening as it brings to the surface some seemingly strange ways of looking at things but also very unfair to those that lived during that time as well because they didn't have the luxury of living when we are with modern understanding of things like science, race relations, progressive thinking, etc, etc.

My not so humble opinion, leave the historical facts as they are, it will foster dialog in the future as to why things were what they were and can help all to avoid mistakes made in the past. Don't revise history to the point that we repeat past offenses.