Change Kitchener's name back to Berlin?

[jeffster]

Hoping for some clarity too.

As for the cities name, I think it should be left alone. I think by trying to force the issue, you could end up opening a Pandora's box, which means a poor outcome. From a provincial, national and international point of view, there is little value to changing the name. If you decide to have a referendum on changing the name, and the "No" side wins, you're going to end up with a lot of problems here. Once people have it set in their minds that the name has to change, regardless of consequences, a "No" outcome while using a democratic process is going to be ugly. If the outcome was "Yes", then deciding on a name has its own issues.

It is sad that we lost the name "Berlin", but at that point in our history, Germany had a poor reputation, and being named after a major German city had some serious consequences. By renaming the city to Kitchener, the city did get a boost in just about every way. At the time of the vote, there were other options, some of them good, some of them, well, Adanac, for example, was poor. But Lord Kitchener was considered a hero. In todays world, he'd be a creep and wouldn't be a hero anywhere.

Our city, though, has a reputation of being very progressive. The city has good policies of trying to help all people, not matter their background, be it religious, financial, ethnic, colour, nationality, etc. People need to remember this is what "Kitchener" means now. It's something the city does much better than many cities around the world. It's who "we" are, not what "Lord Kitchener" was.

At the same time, if we start going through names of everything, we're going to find that we'd need to change a lot of things. If anything, it can be a good history lesson for us.

Is that request for clarification for me? Which part?

There was someone with the name "Weber" in her name on facebook explaining that because she had Weber in her name her family had been here for a long time and no newcomer was going to tell her that the city should be renamed.  There were also some complaints about people being butthurt about a name, etc.

Just the usual trainwreck of a CTV FB thread.

I told her that when her family lived here the city was named Berlin, and that her family lived through at least one renaming, so she probably could deal with one too. I also pointed out that it's a rather dangerous view for a settler to take that people who have lived here longer get to dictate things.

In any case, I see the reason for changing the name, I don't think we can tell anyone what the name should mean to them, for me, it's nothing, I don't even care, it's the name of the place I live in, I have no attachment to it at all. So I don't care, but I do think there are bigger battles to fight. But I recognize that for others it means different things, and those beliefs are no less valid than my own, even if I don't personally see it.

....

With that in mind, in the spirit of being honest about our history and to avoid forgetting our blunder, in lieu of renaming the city (a move I'm mostly neutral on) it might be interesting if there was some sort of monument in Victoria Park that honestly explains Lord Kitchener's legacy and the history behind the renaming of the city.

This is probably the most meaningful compromise I've heard, this could be tastefully done, and most importantly, it should be a monument to Lord Kitchener's victims, not a statue of Lord Kitchener....but an opportunity to educate would be good.

Sorry, had a hard time understanding that one post, as some of the context was missing.

I agree with that last part of your post though, terrific idea. I think they could replace the picture of Lord Kitchener as you go into the mayors wing (just outside the glass doors) with this. And to be honest, I did know about Lord Kitchener, and his now poor reputation, and never understood why city hall has a picture of him that is almost life-size.