I was kind of busy yesterday so I didn’t have time to comment on President Obama’s decision to rename Mt. McKinley or the resulting outrage from conservatives. I think the following explains how dumb this outrage is.
The mountain came to be known as Mount McKinley after President William McKinley in 1896 when a gold prospector heard McKinley had won the Republican presidential nomination, and declared the tallest peak should be named after him to show support. The government formally recognized it as Mount McKinley in 1917, and efforts to change it began in Alaska in 1975, according to the New York Times.
This has been a long time coming for those who have been fighting for the name change. Like the Alaska Dispatch News reported, the story was always the same in D.C., Alaska legislators would file bills to change the name, and someone from Ohio—McKinley’s home state—would file legislation to block the change.
As not much of a compromise, in 1980, the national park surrounding the mountain was named Denali National Park and Preserve, but the Mount McKinley name remained.
“I think for people like myself that have known the mountain as Denali for years and certainly for Alaskans, it’s something that’s been a long time coming,” Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, who signed the order for the name change, told Alaska Dispatch News Sunday.
One of those long-time supporters is Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), who introduced legislation in January to get the peak renamed, but again Ohio lawmakers tried to block it. She posted a video to YouTube Sunday, applauding Obama’s decision to change the name.
“For generations, Alaskans have known this majestic mountain as ‘the great one,’” she said in the video, appearing in front of the snow-topped mountain. “I’d like to thank the president for working with us to achieve this significant change to show honor, respect and gratitude to the Athabascan people of Alaska.”
If anyone is still talking about this tomorrow, you know that they’re terminally stupid.
It’s not just Murkowski. Congressman for life Don Young also endorses the recognition of Denali’s traditional name, and just a couple of weeks ago, Senator Dan Sullivan, who incidentally was born in Ohio, described the restoration of Denali’s name as “high on his agenda”. That’s Alaska’s entire delegation in support of the change.
Having grown up in Alaska myself, I can tell you: The name of the mountain is not controversial or politically divisive. If anything, it’s an insider-outsider thing. “Denali” is a shibboleth. Anyone who says “McKinley” is immediately understood to be from somewhere else.
I’m glad that the national GOP doesn’t get this. Alaska has an independent streak, and this kind of thing stokes it.
Yes, we have a shibboleth like that in New York. Anyone referring to “Avenue of the Americas” rather than “Sixth Avenue” is automatically known to be from somewhere else.
Though the name was officially changed in 1945 at the insistence of the Rockefeller interests, no New Yorker is going to use nine syllables where four will do. (It’s actually a lot more than that, but it’s also that.)
I’ve never even heard the phrase before (Avenue of the Americas) and I’m from Chicago. I wouldn’t call it that either if they tried something like that here.
Good on ya. Wonderful town, Chicago.
I believe The Quittah from Wasilla is also in favor of the name change. I know Senator Portman was being an ass about it. Sad to see Re. Ryan has to be an ass about it too. McKinley was corrupt scum.
Aaaaaand once again, Ohio shows itself. I was born and raised here in Ohio and believe me when I say it’s a frustrating state to live in, politically. We have some of the looniest nutbirds in the country, and some of the most powerful Teabaggers…but I repeat myself.
Don’t judge all of us by the actions of a few.
It’s getting to the point where everybody feels that way about their state.
Anyway I am grateful to Ohio for sending Sherrod Brown to the Senate.
Yup, it’s Sherrod who enables us Ohioans not to have to wear paper bags over our heads. That’s why I’ll smack anyone who proposes a presidential run by him (which he clearly doesn’t want)- we want to keep him right where he is!
Though I am not without hope that Strickland could actually take out Portman. I’m not a big fan, but he’d still be a hell of an improvement.
Yes, Sherrod is exactly where he needs to be. And from every indication he has zero desire to be anywhere else.
As for Ted, I am hopeful that he can knock off Portman. But, like you, I feel a little lukewarm about him in some areas. But it would be great to have 2 Dem Senators. I will probably help out some with his campaign. He has stopped by here locally a couple of times this summer, and I always enjoy talking with him. He does bring the right combination of things that can win over some fence-sitters who might just reflexively vote for Portman, simply because he’s the incumbent and also the fact that he gets very little attention from the media. That low information voter attitude of, “If I haven’t heard anything negative about him, he must be doing okay” often seems to win out.
I was thinking it was the water but you sound reasonable lol.
Kasich says the President “overstepped his bounds”. By doing something which is perfectly within the bounds for a President to do.
Boehner is “deeply disappointed” in the action. Funny the things that deeply disappoint him and the things that don’t. I’m surprised that he was even awake long enough to notice.
Senator Portman was so angry, apparently, that he completely forget the real history involved in naming it Mt. McKinley. Then he was forced to bob and weave through one of his lackeys to try and cover up the fact that he knows absolutely nothing about the subject, other than it was something that Obama did, so he is required to be pissed off.
And the comically ironic thing is that every time you turn around, Republicans are wanting to rename every lamp post, cul-de-sac, overpass and grease spot on the road after Saint Ronald Reagan. These people are quite the study in lunacy.
Those guys aren’t lunatics, they’re just lying (as usual). It’s the rank and file who are lunatics.
I’m hoping that just to check off one of the items on his “rhymes with bucket list”, Obama officially changes the name of Ohio to (you guessed it) Obama. Or maybe he could just change Portman’s name to Obama.
As if it wasn’t already glaringly obvious.
My favorite hilariously stupid cut-and-paste attack o’ the day was Republican Rep. Bob Gibbs calling it a “constitutional overreach”.
I was born and raised in Ohio. My hometown has several elementary schools named after presidents. Garfield, Harrison, Lincoln, McKinley, etc.
McKinley School was recently torn down to make room for a townhouse development.
My home state can just stfu about Denali.
Just another skirmish in the culture war, albeit one that started 40 years ago.
Interesting how Obama manages to finish things that started long ago.
“If anyone is still talking about this tomorrow, you know that they’re terminally stupid.” – They will and they are.
Wish this had been done long ago because I could never remember Mount McKinley. Denali, no problem.
Alaska wants to change their own mountain to Denali? Ehats rhat, they already call it Denali in state? Yeah okay. Done. Ohio can go fuck a duck. Yeesh.
Just rename him President Denali.
In English, THE BIG ONE.
I like it.
I recall OH and NC going to court over who could claim the Wright Bros. It was settled by NC getting to say “First in Flight” on their license plates and OH saying “Birthplace of Aviation” (which both are only partially true if you consider all the other people who got somewhat airborne before the Wright Bros.)
“Birthplace of powered fixed-wing aviation” would be a bit long for a licence plate.
Regarding NC’s “First in Flight”: It would be more accurate to call it “Windier Than Ohio”, ’cause that’s the only reason the Wright Brothers went there.
Tru dat. But OH took enough offense to take NC to court to remove “First in Flight” . Seemed a little odd to go to legal war over protecting the legacy of favorite sons.
Kasich jumps on the OH crazies bandwagon
Maybe someone should have reminded him that he’s running for national office and nobody in the other forty-nine states give a crap about the long-dead McKinley. And McKinley wasn’t President when that gold prospector named it for McKinley.