< PREVIOUS ] [ 1998 Index ] [ Ed Quillen HOME ] [ SEARCH ] [ NEXT >
What's in a name? Plenty, I suppose, if you live in Colorado Springs, where the christening of a few miles of U.S. 24 grew into a controversy.
Several community groups wanted to name the road for the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The Colorado Springs City Council and the El Paso County Commissioners have both endorsed the proposal. These votes were not binding, since the decision will be made by the Colorado Department of Transportation.
But along the way, the proposal perturbed County Commissioner Betty Beedy, who said that King had extramarital affairs, and thus would be an inappropriate person to honor with a highway name. Her lone negative vote on the county board was followed by another solo nay on the city council, from Dawson Hubert.
The implication is that namesakes become role models, and with the wrong name, people might be encouraged to misbehave.
In other words, we should worry about private property
in Utah. The state's name comes from the Ute Indian tribe,
and the Utes were described in 1879 by no less an authority
than William B. Vickers, secretary to the governor of
Colorado, as actual, practical Communists.
At last report, free enterprise and the American way in
Utah were thriving under enthusiastic Republican
protection, despite the socialistic temptations of the
state name. Indeed, the same can be said of Colorado,
which means Red
in Official English and should, at
the least, inspire us to a rousing May Day march behind the
crimson banner of anarchy -- if these names indeed had
anything to do with behavior.
So there is no convincing evidence that Commissioner Beedy and Councilman Hubert are correct, but if they are indeed intent on purifying the map, they could start at home, in El Paso County and Colorado Springs.
Start with Colorado Springs.
The namesake
mineral-water springs actually bubble in Manitou Springs,
not Colorado Springs, which began as the Fountain Colony
and adopted the new name as part of a real-estate hustle to
sell lots at the foot of Pikes Peak. Should such deception
be enshrined on our maps?
As for Zebulon M. Pike, namesake of the mountain, his loyalty to the United States remains very much in question, 191 years after he invaded Mexico under the orders of Gen. James Wilkinson, who conspired with Aaron Burr -- the only vice-president ever charged with treason, and the man who killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel.
Pike never climbed the Grand Peak
he saw on his
way west; it was officially christened James Peak
by
Maj. Stephen Long after his 1820 expedition, in honor of
Dr. Edwin C. James, the botanist who made the first
recorded climb. It became Pike's peak from the journals of
John C. Frémont -- who was court-martialed for
insubordination during the Mexican War.
So Pike kept questionable company and may have been part of a seditious conspiracy. His name was put on the mountain by a man of questionable character. Further, Pike was a New Age sort, rather than a good Christian. I find it hard to believe that the right-thinkers of Colorado Springs continue to abide such a name on such an eminent landmark.
Their influence may not extend to the U.S. Board of Geographic names, but certainly they could rename Pikes Peak Avenue if they were sincere about placing only perfect role models on the map.
A Colorado Springs street map provides many other affronts to perfection and possible inducements to indiscretion.
For instance, there's a Hangtree Court
-- does
that mean they approve of lynching? Might High
Street
encourage drug use? Darwin Point
--
aren't the right-thinkers of El Paso County outraged? How
many children might be led astray by a street which bears
the same name as the author of the theory of evolution?
And what of Rainbow Point
? Does anyone else
remember all the angry statements from El Paso County a
couple of years ago, when we were assured that
Rainbow
is a code word for the gay-rights movement?
And they allow that word on their street signs? Along with
a Byron Drive,
perhaps named for the noted poet --
and philanderer.
Along that line, we can't neglect Byers Avenue -- presumably named for William Newton Byers, founder of Denver's other newspaper. And a man caught in a Clinton-style scandal in 1876, when one Hattie E. Sancomb tried to shoot him, claiming that she had been his mistress for four years, only to have her heart broken when he refused to divorce his wife and marry her.
This could go on indefinitely, but by now it should be clear -- if street names are supposed to set a perfect example for impressionable youth, Beedy and Hubert have a lot of work to do before they worry about a King Parkway.
< PREVIOUS ] [ 1998 Index ] [ Ed Quillen HOME ] [ SEARCH ] [ NEXT >