July 7, 2026

What’s In A Name

A generation ago it was considered, in some South American countries, an honor to be named after an American president. Thus we had Professor Washington Vasquez at Miami. Alas, we ourselves don’t have many people of that first name, but “Washington” lives on in plenty of other places. Besides the obvious, the state and the capitol, how many counties, cities, streets, schools, businesses, lakes, mountains, the list goes on, proudly bear the name “Washington”?

On this 250^th anniversary of our country ( a short time in the grand scheme of things) I think back to my two trips to Washington, D.C., the first, a family of seven, on the way to visit grandparents on the east coast, stopping in the capitol, being admonished at the Lincoln memorial for having unruly boys running around (can hardly blame them after hours driving from Ohio in a non air conditioned car) and the second trip, with two older kids and a compatriot friend, participating in an anti Viet Nam war protest, marching down Pennsylvania Avenue chanting blah blah blah we don’t support the war and shaking fists at theDefense Department and John Mitchell. How wonderfully American!

So this July Fourth holiday week, celebrate our country by naming your baby “Washington” or if you choose, Madison, or Harrison, or Taft. Let’s hear it for McKinley Mcgillicuddy, or Coolidge Cooper, or Roosevelt Dairy Queen or Truman Shoe Store!

Or the best move of all, vote our current not-my-president OUT.