Letter: Parts of road name critic’s arguments ‘nothing short of laughable’

To the Editor,

The December 5th article “Man Suing Judge Executive” shows the ridiculous lengths to which people will go to get their way. Mr. Thrasher’s offer to settle his dispute with Judge Watts and the Fiscal Court by choosing a road name he prefers or by appointing him to make-work county positions is nothing short of laughable. If “Salt River Road” is unacceptable because of its tenuous association with slavery in 18th century Kentucky, then you will have to rename the Ohio and Mississippi rivers because of their role in transporting enslaved African-Americans from Kentucky to slave markets in Natchez and New Orleans.

Mr. Thrasher just might want to run his proposed road names past “Historians for Justice” for their approval. “Bardstown Road” could be associated with “Bardstown,” which was a major slave trading center, with enslaved African-Americans marched from Maywood Plantation up Louisville Road/Bardstown Road/Salt River Road to the steamboat port of Louisville. “General Nelson Road” conjures up images of a man who was a Revolutionary War patriot and Virginia Governor, and also a man who owned hundreds of slaves.

Pen Bogert
Bardstown