#Names May 16

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Today for the 30-Day Podcast Coach4aday Challenge my theme is NAMES.

Somewhere along the way I heard or read about the most important word in the English Language. It is simply your name. Searching for a podcast to listen to I reviewed a list on Spotify. Made a decision to check out RadioLab. It is part of New York Public Radio and station WNYC.

The website describes the podcast this way “Radiolab is on a curiosity bender. We ask deep questions and use investigative journalism to get the answers. A given episode might whirl you through science, legal history, and into the home of someone halfway across the world.”

Day 16 Podcast

Scrolling thru the different topics that RadioLab offers I settled on an episode called “Hello My Name Is”. This episode actually has six stories as part of the podcast. There is the Firefighter named Les McBurney that kicks off the show.

What captured my attention was the part of the show that was about Pinecrest HS in Southern Pines NC. It was about how a community unnamed the auditorium. It received its name in the 1990’s from the Moore County School Board. They voted to name the auditorium for a retiring school superintendent who was at the forefront of racial integration. Before the federal government forced desegregation this leader got in front of it and built a brand-new high school. That new school was Pinecrest, and it enrolled all races.

So, you may be wondering why the School Board had to go thru the process of changing the name on the auditorium. Well because the leader that desegrated Moore County name was Robert E. Lee. For the record not the confederate general. He was a leader that changed the community.

Students at the HS created a documentary which you can watch here. That film played a part in causing a name change.

The school board took down the name “Robert E. Lee Auditorium,” and in its place they put “R.E. Lee Auditorium.”

NAMES unfortunately cause an association with a strong emotional feeling that sometimes is not logically correct.