Geographical Names Im gonna start some trouble here! Those of you that get my emails know how strongly I try to avoid controversy of any kind, so you may have a hard time understanding this - unless you can see how firmly my tongue is planted inside my cheek. At one time, the government of the United States went around the country renames places that were nasty of insensitive. Im gonna do all the research to determined exactly how and why this was done because any government imposing its standards of morality on a populace is almost always fraught with danger. Once you allow it to happen, when will it be picked up and used to sweep away something that is politically (or morally) incorrect (at the time). Morality is not determined by the holiest among us; it never has been. It is determined by the people that have power, licit or illicit, to make a profit from telling other people how to behave. Anyway, heres a link to the sight that touches on this matter: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Board_on_Geographic_Names Now, why is this of interest to me right now? Thats easy; it was brought to my recall by the first section of this email (Art And Sacrilege). I have a few example of the wonderful (???) place names that we lost, just here in Colorado: 1.) Dirty Whore Gulch (near Bonanza, CO), 2.) Las tetas de la Tierra (near La Veta, CO), and, lastly, 3.) Río de Orina (San Juan Mountains). Colorful, huh??? Thats Colorado; Colorful Colorado, according to the state publicity people. Those names are now, respectively, Old Woman Gulch, Twin Peaks and Yellow Creek. Thanks to our government for protecting us from ourselves! They changed thousands upon thousands of place names starting in 1890. Now, because I am somewhat disparaging of my Aetheist and Separation of Church and State friends, I want to make a suggestion to show that my heart is in the right place; LETS GET THIS GOVERNMENT AGENCY TO RENAME ALL OF THE RELIGIOUS-TYPE PLACE NAMES IN THE UNITED STATES!!! No more, San Jose (CA), San Antonio (TX), St. Petersburg (FL) or St Paul (MN)! No more Plains of San Augustin (NM) or Sangre de Cristo Mountains (CO and NM). No more Los Angeles (CA) and no more Providence (RI) No more Maryland (or the Terrapins football team!) Away with Bethlehem (PA), Mecca, (CA) and Medina, (WA). I think we need to hire linguists (Maybe from the NSA or CIA???) to hunt out the place names around the country, from Native American words and other languages that we normally dont know a lot about and remove any of those that might have any kinda religious meaning! I worry about Manitou Springs (CO) and the Garden of the Gods (Colorado Springs, CO). And, I just recently discovered (well, actually...) that Mazda (a popular Japanese automobile) is the name of a Zoroastrian god!!! This could really help protect all of us from each others religious beliefs! And, if we could prove that Detroit (MI) or anywhere else, has any religious significance, we could allow the selling of naming rights just like athletic stadia around the nation. How does General Motors, Michigan sound??? Or, Tyson Chicken, Florida? I mean,. actually - I know, for instance, General Motors has owned the soul of most of Michigan for a century...San Jose, California could become Oracle, California...Oops, maybe not - that could remind somebody of those pesky old Greek gods and religious practices!
Posted on: Sat, 30 Nov 2013 19:45:27 +0000