PETA out to rename town

DailyTrojan ^ | 29 October 2003 | Peter J. Spalding

[stainlessbanner]

A friend of mine, who happens to be of the hippie persuasion, ran up to me with a big grin on her face.

"Did you hear the news?" she asked.

This friend is a member of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, so she loves to squawk about animal rights. She gets a thrill out of protesting zoos, circuses and other kinds of diversions, and she is a diehard vegan. Her shenanigans make for great comic relief, and her newest soapbox is no exception.

Apparently PETA has petitioned the town of Rodeo, Calif., to change its name because the word "rodeo" represents "egregious cruelty " to animals. PETA suggested adopting the name "Unity" instead, and pledged to donate $20,000 worth of veggie burgers if the town goes through with the change.

As if that weren't enough, PETA also wants to change San Francisco's Hunters Point to "Gatherers Point."

When I heard this news, I laughed so hard that my friend almost choked on her soy milk.

These are the same cuckoos who tried to get Hamburg, N.Y., to change its name to "Veggieburg," and they also petitioned Fishkill, N.Y., to change its name to "Fishsave."

(Never mind the fact that Hamburg is named after a German city, and Fishkill is named after the Dutch words for "fish creek." Apparently PETA still thought they were insulting to animals, even though no animals seemed to complain.)

Luckily the people of Rodeo have some sense in their heads, so they rejected the idea before you could say "tofu."

"I'm not going to sell out for a veggie burger," Doug Boyom told the San Francisco Chronicle. "I'm not going to sell out, period."

It's good to know that, in this age of political correctness, some people still have sense in their heads. There's nothing wrong with trying to bring about social change, of course, but we should never turn our backs on our heritage. We have nothing to gain — and everything to lose — if we try to whitewash our history.

If we were going to rename Rodeo, we might as well rename Los Angeles. Granted, this name has nothing to do with animals — as we all know, it translates to "City of Angels" — but it's politically incorrect anyway.

It has a lot of religious connotations (gasp!) and it hearkens back to a time of Spanish imperialism.

This place was named by a group of Catholic missionaries who camped here in 1769. They were traveling through California to find locations for religious settlements.

If our city was really P.C., it would probably be named "Yangna," because that's the name of the Indian village that was here before the missionaries arrived.

Or it might be called "Bahía de los Fumos," which is what the first Spanish explorers called the place. In English, that means "Bay of Smokes," which is a good moniker if you think about it. It describes our smog problem perfectly.

But we wound up with the name "Los Angeles," giving us a constant reminder of the city's missionary past. That past definitely has a dark side, because the missions all but wiped out the native tribes who used to live here. Even so, it's part of our heritage, whether we like it or not.

It's true that, in a lot of ways, our city's name seems weird today, since there aren't many angels left around here. We do have a few residents who get deluded into thinking they're vessels of the Lord, so they dress in white robes, spout off loony rhetoric and start a new religion. But they're not really angels, they just think they are.

The fact of the matter is that our city's name is a link to our past, and the same thing holds true for almost any place name. The town of Rodeo has its own heritage, as does Hunters Point. We should never lose sight of that, and we should never whitewash it.

So if you've got a political soapbox, whether it's animal rights or anything else, make sure you're sensible about it. Don't throw out overblown, loony ideas like renaming a town.

It's not going to accomplish anything except to make you look bad. Political correctness is not the way of the world.

[stainlessbanner]

Any other suggestions, FReepers?

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

There are hidden contradictions in the minds of people who "love Nature" while deploring the "artificialities" with which "Man has spoiled 'Nature.'" The obvious contradiction lies in their choice of words, which imply that Man and his artifacts are not part of "Nature" -- but beavers and their dams are. But the contradictions go deeper than this prima-facie absurdity. In declaring his love for a beaver dam (erected by beavers for beavers' purposes) and his hatred for dams erected by men (for the purposes of men) the "naturist" reveals his hatred for his own race -- i.e., his own self hatred.
In the case of "Naturists" such self-hatred is understandable; they are such a sorry lot. But hatred is too strong an emotion to feel toward them; pity and contempt are the most they rate.
As for me, willy-nilly I am a man, not a beaver, and H. sapiens is the only race I have or can have. Fortunately for me, I like being part of a race made up of men and women -- it strikes me as a fine arrangement and perfectly "natural."

THE NOTEBOOKS OF LAZARUS LONG

by Robert Anson Heinlein

[scouse]

as we all know, it translates to "City of Angels"

I think to be factual the translation of the original name in Spanish is, "The City of Our Lady, Queen of the Angels".

[petercooper]

PETA

People for the Eating of Tasty Animals

[Ladypixel]

Los Angeles: Originally called by the Spaniards "Pueblo de la Reine, de los Angeles" (The town of the Queen of the Angels), hence Los Angeles, "the angels."

However, the direct, exact translation of "Los Angeles", if I'm not mistaken, is "the angels".

[Ladypixel]

Yummy! Pass me another bowlful of that nice rabbit stew, wouldya?

[scouse]

"Pueblo de la Reine, de los Angeles"

Was it not Cuidad de Nuestra Senora, La Reina de Los Angeles?

[Ladypixel]

Actually, that sounds more correct, but it's been a long time since 4th grade California history class, and I dug up the other one on the net. :)

But your version does sound right in comparison.

See? Not all Angelenos speak Spanish well...! ;)

[commish]

uh oh HUNTSville, AL better watch out!!!

[JesseHousman]

La ciudad de nuestra señora, reina de los ángeles

[scouse]

I used to live in Orange County.

[BraveMan]

No word yet from the residents of Petatwats . . .

[12B]

They better not try to rename French Lick, IN

[Free Trapper]

It's refreshing to know I can still go to Squaw Creak in Okla. and I'm mixed Indian Welsh,mostly and quite "diverse" on the Indian side of that combo.

[meyer]

Who's gonna save poor John Barleycorn? Stop killing defenseless vegetables, fruits, and whole grains!!

[Free Trapper]

Just last weekend,I woke up camped at the lake and a feller that had pulled in and camped next to us in the night was fixing breakfast for his wife and two girls.

I told my wife "that buck came in here last night and pitched camp while they set in lawn chairs watching,now he's cooking them breakfast setting a terrible example to the rest of the squaws around here" as she was rolling me a morning smoke so I wouldn't have to crawl out of bed.

You've got to call a skunk a skunk,just as you see him.

PM,morning,gotta run,catch you later.

[PoorMuttly]

Ha !

What a beautiful life you have...and evidently your wife gets a kick out of you too...which must be very relaxing, deep inside. Uh...gulp...am I allowed to say "liberating?"..!

Y'know...our Native brothers "we" found here (from somewhere else originally, as is everybody!)...I guess ate a lot of veggieburgers, and were very peaceful and considerate of their families and neighbors, too (insert hard swallow here). Our heritage is a rocky thing, all around...and if we forget that, repeating it out of ignorance will probably kill the vegetarians first ! So..to protect them, our fragile but loudly opinionated kin...we must ignore them...with a grin...and great deafness !

I am not against renaming Seattle "ClosedForReEducation" though.

[goldstategop]

Bwahahahaha!!! Give me a good old-fashioned rodeo any day! And while we're at it, has PETA ever been to Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, California? What a bunch of loons!

[TenthAmendmentChampion]

I'm surprised they haven't tried to rename the Catskills!

[F.J. Mitchell]

If the anti gun nuts follow PETA's example, they will be demanding that the name of Cut and Shoot, Texas, be changed to Cut and.