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More states may face boycotts

Published 26-Jan-1993 in the Denver Post
Copyright ©1993 by Ed Quillen. All rights reserved.

Ski visits are up from last year. The National Western Stock Show just set an attendance record. Hollywood liberal types have been spotted at various of our resorts.

This made me wonder whether the boycott is only a Barbra Streisand publicity stunt, so I called P.C. Snubb, exalted grand archon of the Institute for the Enablement and Empowerment of the Politically Pure.

I shouldn't talk to anyone from the Hate State, she sniffed.

But I opposed Amendment Two and voted against it.

Everybody says that, she snapped. Besides, that was last month. Now we're calling on all people of good will to boycott Colorado until you change the state's name.

This was a new to me, so I pressed for details.

Colorado means 'red' in Spanish. Crimson is the color of Mars; it is the symbolize of warfare, and we are opposed to the deliberate glorification of violence. 'Verde' would honor good Green Mother Earth. You could apologize to your gay citizens by naming your state 'Lavanda.'

Further, 'Colorado' is the masculine form of a Spanish adjective, so Colorado is thus an integral component of the oppressive patriarchy that we must destroy.

Other states must suffer from improper nomenclature.

Certainly. Louisiana was named for King Louis of France. Washington is named for George, not Martha. Pennsylvania, William Penn, another dead white guy, it's out. Carolina is a woman's name today, but it comes from the Latin form of 'Charles,' so both North and South Carolina are on the list.

Virginia and Maryland must be safe, and New Mexico will pick up a lot of Colorado business.

Not really, she cautioned. By saying 'New Mexico,' you're implying that the real Mexico is 'Old Mexico,' which panders to an ageist prejudice against the old.

Then Utah, well known as a bastion of diversity and tolerance, will get the business.

Never, she snapped. Utah's name comes from the Ute Native Americans. It's another sordid example of cultural imperialism, just like the Cleveland Indians and Washington Redskins. Wyoming, Kansas, Texas, the Dakotas -- all must change, or suffer the consequences.

Where did they ever get the idea that they could use threats to force states to change their ways?

From the federal government, she explained. Remember the national 55-mph speed limit 20 years ago? The feds said they would withhold highway money from any state that didn't lower its speed limit. Or getting rid of 3.2 beer for 18-year-olds? The feds threatened to withhold highway funds unless states raised their drinking age. Local school districts adopt blood-test policies because the feds threaten to withhold money.

Such threats obviously work, I agreed.

Why should Congress have all the fun? she asked before concluding with Power to the people.


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