What's in a Name?

Yes, I know Shakespeare

This is a screenshot of the Google map over the White House city park. Did you know that they changed the name of the park last year? Yes, yes they did. Mayor Arnold moved to Florida and “retired” at the end of 2021, and the board named the city park after him. What on Earth did he do to warrant a park named after him? Better question, why is it that White House names buildings and rooms and parks after people that are still alive? I cannot answer that, but I can tell you what Arnold was involved in.

Link to this article.

We can start here. I’m sure the haters will ask me why I dredged this up. Well, I figure if we can dredge up the issues from the 1700’s and rename colleges etc, digging something up from 2018 shouldn’t be such a stretch. Further in this article, they address that they found the drugs while there on another call. If you want to know what that was, you will have to ask people who live here and were paying attention. I don’t have access to that information, and therefore cannot print hearsay. Marijuana isn’t that big of a deal to most people, especially young people, but this was the leader of the community.

What else did he do for the community? Well, he approved The Parks, and Legacy Farms even though 100’s of people showed up to oppose it. Those 1100 homes behind Heritage HS required the city to pay for a new road between Pinson and the school, and now the city will be shelling out the money for a stoplight on 76 at Pleasant Grove Road.

But wait, there’s more…… Dorris Farms, Willow Grove, Sage Farms, Jackson Farms, Calista Farms, The Fields at Oakwook, Caliber Collision, Sage North, The City Center, Frey Branch Cottages, the town homes on Pinson, and I’m sure a few more I’ve missed. So, the traffic you are sitting in today and will be sitting in in the coming months, you can thank Arnold and his friends. He did bring you the dog park. My vote would have been to name that after him. I don’t live in the city limits though, so I don’t actually get a vote.

Here we are now with a city park named after a guy that was busted for pot, approved 1000’s of homes, took campaign donations from a builder, and moved to Florida before his term was over. WTH White House???? I think we can do better.

The board of Mayor and Aldermen will be discussing this on Thursday. This might not seem like a big deal, but let’s not turn this town into a laughing stock. Let’s change the name back to White House City Park or after a founder of the city. Stone Wilkes was one of the first families to settle here. Covington is another family that was instrumental in the beginnings of White House. They ran the “normal college” that was where the city center and rec center will be.

What can you do? Write an email to your mayor and aldermen. That red link will direct you to the page where all of their addresses are. Show up on Thursday night. You don’t even have to stay for the entire meeting. Sign up at the beginning and speak. It won’t take long. All you have to say is, “Please change the name of the park to anything but Michael L Arnold Municipal Park.” This isn’t a hard one or a political one. I think we can all get behind changing the name of the park.

Who’s with me??????