A poem for the Agassiz neighborhood
This poem was received from Fred Meyer, an Agassiz neighborhood resident since 1959. It is posted as sent.
(A Poem…for Our…‘AGASSIZ…NEIGHBORHOOD’) ‘GREAT’…NeedN’T Mean…‘PERFECT’!
Two hundred…or so…years ago
Ideas THEN…were NOT the same!
(NOT like TODAY’S…‘Correctness Reign’!)
Then: Few believed in…EVOLUTION…
Charles Darwin’s very…smart solution!
Back then: AGASSIZ..was…‘all the rage’!
Plants, Birds, Animals: NOT just…in some cage…
but STUFFED! Well-preserved, for…ALL now to see
closely, in comfort and…Security!
He thought that Blacks were…NOT his kin!
[But that meant that…just Whites would WIN!]
Today, we know: “That’s…HORRID…HERESY!”
So why are there some…who’d much rather be
HONORING…this man…(for sure…UNpure)?
WHY SHOULD…Agassiz’s…NAME now…endure?
‘Cause being flawed…doesN’T…have to mean…‘Failed!’
HIS Tasks, to HELP us out….SHALL long be…HAILED!
Courage…Hard-work…Discipline:…They WERE ALL HIS!
[Watch many students PASS his…super-tough quiz!]
HE WON…for us… the first…GRADUATE Schools!
Helped found CORNELL, above…Cayuga’s pools!
Though Agassiz made.…ONE HUGE mistake…
That doesN’T mean HE…wasN’T First-Rate!
“Let One WITHOUT SIN now…cast the first stone!”
Let’s RESCUE him, NOW! DON’T…LEAVE him alone!
For ONLY GOD can be…His Righteous Judge!
[Note:…GOD’s…NOT the type to…hold a LONG Grudge!]
Attack NOT His CORPSE…as do…loathsome…VULTURE!
SUPPORT…(DON’T CANCEL)…OUR AGASSIZ’s…CULTURE’!
It was bad enough when Mr Meyer tried to rationalize Agassiz’s racism in his last letter, but this work of “poetry” is a new low. Using wordplay or the cute rhymes of a child does not obscure that Agassiz was a deeply destructive racist who used his power and position to oppress Black people and lay the pseudo-intellectual foundation for many others to do the same.
Meyer says ideas may have have been different hundreds of years ago, as if somehow Agassiz was simply a casual bystander. On the contrary, Agassiz was an exceptionally active and energetic proponent of these abhorrent ideas.
As a community that prides itself on the intellect and progress, it is repugnant that we continue to honor a backward anti-intellectual who did so much damage to so many.