Following the cowardly example of the Thomas Jefferson Health District, the United Way —Thomas Jefferson Area, and a host of others, Charlottesville’s own Tom Tom Festival has jettisoned its namesake.
A pusillanimous email missive from Tom Tom founder, Paul Beyer, broke the news:
For us, it’s also a time to define; in this case, bringing a formal definition to our name. Going forward, Tom Tom will be short-hand for “Tomorrow Tomorrow”— a Festival about the Future. It harkens back to the very first Tom Tom promotional poster in 2012, when that year’s theme was “Dreams of the Future.”
And if it wasn’t clear exactly what was behind the rebranding effort, Beyer elaborated:
We will also be moving our dates back by a week, away from Thomas Jefferson’s birthday and the traditional “Founders Day” programming.
Beyer’s politically correct cravenness stands in contrast to his 2014 lauding of Jefferson and the revered man’s myriad accomplishments:
WHAT DOES THE NAME MEAN?
“Tom Tom” is a tip of the hat to Thomas Jefferson. Best remembered as the author of The Declaration of Independence, founder of the University of Virginia, architect of Monticello, and Third President of the United States, Jefferson was also a visionary farmer, wine maker, art patron, educator, and inventor. Tom Tom connects Jefferson’s revolutionary legacy with the difficult and visionary work of founders today.
In retrospect, perhaps Jefferson’s present-day reputation is improved by Beyer’s gutless distancing act. In a world where we are known by the company we keep, Thomas Jefferson is now immeasurably better-off.
To the festival organizers…..FUCK YOU! i can’t be any more explicit than that. I hope that you are not afforded any tax breaks or fee exemptions or any special financial incentives afforded to you at taxpayer expense. I am absolutely sick and tired of being “spit in the face” by all these socialists who want to delete our history. Go have your festival up on uva grounds with all the other socialists instead of using the park that MY TAX DOLLARS provides. YOU HORRID HUMAN BEINGS…
Well said Bill!
Thank you Bill. It’s been coming for a long time. I’m absolutely done with liberals.
Just one more reason to leave Charlottesville off of the list of places to visit or move to. The liberals are getting what they deserve and earned. A 24% increase in property taxes in one year to pay for all the giveaways from the past decade and to waste on over priced projects like the 80 million to renovate Buford Middle school. Meanwhile these downtrodden folks they brey about saving are sitting in UVA hospital waiting room for three and four days waiting for a mental hospital to take them because there is not enough money. Meanwhile also nearly every single major violent crime is committed by someone who a judge let out on parole or probation instead of protecting us from them for their full term. And last not but not least….. just remember that when it snows and you are busting your back to shovel your sidewalk to avoid a fine because the welfare folks have no interest in earning any money…. that they are sitting in their welfare apartment watching a city worker shovel their walks for free.
Abe, I moved away in 2015 and never looked back. Was in a diner in Maine with a TV in the background when the riot news was breaking that Saturday in August 2017; wasn’t surprised. Cville–since I’d moved there in 1993–was a town with a gargantuan superiority complex. Often heard people crowing about the Downtown Mall literally like nothing else like it existed in America. Even the fire apparatus, with the humorous “World Class City,” reeks of this attitude. Now, as for UWTJ, United Ways have long been known to be inefficient, oft-corrupt, money-wasting middlemen; really no reason to even waste time on them. TomTom is, as en entity, a wonderful example of a Cville “legend in its own mind.” It has no doubt made some people wealthy, not really done much for Central Virginia, and if it moved to Oregon tomorrow, the usual whiners would bloviate about the economic loss to the city. In reality, life goes on and few would miss it. Let them revel in their self-importance; they get off on it.
So the Tom Toms changed their mission statement. Has that never been done?
Astute.
[…] The latest electronic dispatch from Charlottesville City’s Office of Economic Development (OED) says everything…in the words it refuses to say: “Thomas Jefferson.” […]