George,

In regards to Hemings Way:

1. People will use any excuse, including slavery and really a monument to TJ, to prevent women's impact on history to be acknowledged. Regardless of her position or Jefferson's, to still deny her involvement keeps her memory in slavery and belittles the impact the Africans had on our country. As slaves, they built the infrastructure of this country and I grow weary of those of European descent claiming responsibility for it.

2. Unless one can show that the underground railroad went through the 9th-10th street connector, Freedom's Way [proposed by Agnes Cross-White] is an inappropriate name. More suitable would be names as Sorrow's Way or Bondage Way. We should not white wash our history. Confronting the horror of slavery every day, I believe, would help us to prevent other assaults against human rights.

3. And finally, once again, we seem to be subjugating the will of the have nots for the fame and attention of the haves. Why would all these people making the news get to decide the name of the street. When the streets in the county were named for 911 access, the residents and home owners of those streets were the ones to choose. Let the residents of the 10th and Page neighborhood be interviewed for the paper and let them decide about Hemings Way. Or is it still the times of Sally Hemings and "these people" can't be trusted to choose properly? I thought that viewpoint went out with the law that only landowners can vote. What is truely sad is that Ms. Cross-White has bought into the European propaganda and is herself attempting to name the street without input from the residents.

Ellora Young (electronic mail, May 18, 2000).