No, I’m not pulling your leg. President *Batteries Not Included really has taken it upon himself to rename Mt. McKinley, the highest mountain in North America ( http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/obama-renames-nation%E2%80%99s-highest-mountain/ar-AAdLF9D?ocid=ansmsnnews11 ).
Who does he think he is?
It will now be Mt. Denali, a name by which many of the native peoples have called it for centuries. If that strikes you as only fair, please bear in mind that most of the geographical features in North America, natural and man-made, used to have names other than the ones they have today. Do you want to start changing all the names back to what they were 500 years ago?
Mt. McKinley was an easy target because it was named for a white male Republican. Had it been dubbed, say, Mt. Al Sharpton, or Mt. Margaret “Abortion Goddess” Sanger, or Mt. Dan “Mr. Homofascist” Savage, there is no way that name is going anywhere. But who was going to stand up for poor President McKinley?
It would be more productive and more just to start naming landfills and Superfund sites after our current national leaders. The Mitch McConnell Solid Waste Collection Site. The Hilary Clinton Toxic Waste Reservation. Enter at your own risk.
Because it won’t be so easy to get out.