Cult Of Personality: People Scrambling To Name Things After Obama
Naming things after political leaders is a time-honored tradition. Mt. McKinley. The State of Washington. Theodore Roosevelt Elementary School. Etc, etc.
But before a political leader gets something named after him, shouldn’t he have to of, you know, done something?
(CBS/AP) A school on Long Island has been renamed Barack Obama Elementary School in honor of his historic rise to the presidency.
The move at the largely black and Hispanic school in Hempstead is among the first in what will likely be a wave of name changes around the world now that Mr. Obama has been elected president, from schools and streets to parks and mountaintops.
The prime minister of the Caribbean nation of Antigua has said he’s taking measures to have the island’s highest mountain peak renamed Mount Obama. In Portland, Ore., students want to rename Clark K-8 At Binnsmead school. Elsewhere on Long Island, the Clear Stream Avenue School in Valley Stream will consider a renaming resolution in December. And parents already have been naming newborns Barack.
“When I’m older I’m going to look back and say I went to Barack Obama Elementary School,” said fifth-grader Teonte Jackson, who played Mr. Obama in a mock presidential debate before the election. “He had the guts to run for president and believe in himself.”
Isn’t there a law or something against naming public buildings after elected officials while those officials are still in office? Maybe I’m wrong, but I thought that was the case.
Anyway, the cult worship of Obama continues unabated and it’s not a healthy thing. Yes, he’s the first black President. Yes, that’s historic. But let’s hold off and see how the guy actually does as President before we go turning him into some sort of icon.
