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KITTYONFYRE t1_jdx6c0e wrote

would be nice to see what Mead actually did & said. information is slim in this article, Middlebury College's article, and the wikipedia page for him. is this actually a nuanced subject, or is this "old man yells at clouds"? Likely the former, but it'd be nice to read more.

> The basis for the name removal was Gov. Mead’s support, in his farewell address of 1912, “for proposals to restrict the issuance of marriage licenses and to appoint a commission to study the use of a new operation called a vasectomy, which was a safer and more humane process of sterilization,” the lawsuit states. But claims that his comments caused sterilizations to happen 20 or 30 years later “is factually baseless and legally unjust,” Douglas wrote.

considering the republican and democratic parties swapped platforms somewhere around that time I don't think this is just blatant "im a republican and republicans good" move, but it could be. studying vasectomies is fine, the dude WAS literally a doctor so that makes sense. Restricting the issuance of marriage licenses is sus but I don't know what those licenses are, how they're given out, etc etc.

Any historians here to educate? I'd love to learn more.

edit: it’s not looking good for mr mead imo

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nixxon t1_jdxe2n1 wrote

Not a historian, but I think the whole issue is very complicated. Eugenics was, at the time, mainstream and fairly widely accepted as a great idea. I'm sure well meaning people right now (myself included) are promoting ideas that will seem off-putting in the future. No need to honor these men, of course, but I think it is important to take the historical context into account when personally judging. There but for the grace of god go I, kind of thing.

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Mission_Phrase_5133 t1_jdy3nr9 wrote

https://sos.vermont.gov/media/y4wfu1lu/mead1912.pdf full text here folks. In case you are unfamiliar with the concept of a search engine, you use your internet browser to go to a website such as www.google.com, www.yahoo.com, or if you're feeling nostalgic, www.askjeeves.com. You then enter keywords such as "Vermont" "John Mead" and "1912 address" to find information you are looking for out on the good ol' world wide web.

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KITTYONFYRE t1_jdy9r6z wrote

thanks for the link. looks like he was a fan of eugenics, talks about it page 12. case closed. appreciated.

could’ve gone without the snark, i did the basic 2 minute googling. but thanks for the info.

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