hey westsideboy....

[westsideboy]

Mountain names can't be changed by the Maryland State Government. Mountains are named by the USGS, and are very very loathe to change them, else they would have to accomidate every crazy with a beef. It is a PC smoke and mirror trick initiated because some legislator read online that PA was doing the same thing. We certainly don't want to be "outliberaled" by the Keystone State.

The most the state can do is recommend something to the USGS, or make some bogus internal proclamation that the names "are no longer recognized by the state" and then take down the signs or some such garbage.

The joke in the end is on them, because the locals won't stop calling the mountains by their real names. Half of the names you see on the geographic maps now are not what we really call them. We have our own culture and traditions and no senator from Baltimore is going to succeed in changing them. If anything they will embolded the locals to unite against an outside force.

NPB, this is very different than passing a law or ordinance banning an activity, this is an effort to white-wash history and erase the collective memory of Western Marylanders. It will fail on this level, even if it succeeds at some governmental level.

And it really is a shame too. If this yahoo had done some research she would know that 2/3 of the mountains she wants to change are not offensive to anyone, Savage Mountain (named after surveyor John Savage) and Polish (named after the polished appearance of the rocks at the ridge line.) The third, Negro Mountain was named in honor of a black person who gave his life to early American cause, updating it to Nemesis Mountain in and of itself is not that bold of a move, and actually sounds much cooler.

But when you mix your legitimate ideas with those that are absurd, and don't involve the local population and instread run right to an Annapolis committee room, you ruin any hope of capturing the good will of the residents of Western Maryland. We are used to this by now and will respond accordingly.