So Trump wants to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, does he?
Well, first, in order to enter the gulf, you must pass Cuba, so if there is a name change, it should be to Gulf of Cuba. The Indian Ocean, the Straights of Gibraltar, China Sea, Arabian Sea, Greenland Sea and others are named for the countries with which they first come in contact, so Gulf of Cuba it must be.
Florida recognizes the name change to Gulf of America. So does Google. This is simply hubris, or perhaps, good old “sucking up.”
Google has the ability to force a name change on all its searches, its maps and its Google Earth app, but that doesn’t make it real.
Now, names aren’t all that important. The Inuit have a score of names for something as simple to us southerners as “snow.” Think of all the names we give to Trump, mostly uncomplientary. Doesn’t change the fact that he is not much of a man anyway. However, a lot of us are sensitive to being called names.
I would guess, for instance, that having the world rename the United States of America to the Unlimited Stupidity of Americans would not sit well with many Americans, but isn’t it a better name?
Imagine a map of the world. There’s Canada, a huge weight on top of the Unlimited Stupidity of America, with Mexico holding them up below. Imagine the imagine of an Oreo cookie, with stuff in the middle. Not much stuff, but stuff, nonetheless. Or, better yet, a Sloppy Joe. Two beautiful whole grain bun halves, with a whole lot of brown goo oozing out the sides. Think of what that brown goo also represents.
This is the map I see. The middle brown stuff is America, and it is not pleasant in any way. America is squeezing out on all sides, desperate to be viewed as desirable, but still a tasteless version of something much better: a burger. Lots of junk inside, but a mess of incongruency trying to be respectable.
Sloppy Joes are not classy meals. They are a quick fix trying to be passable. But if you let them sit long enough, they soak their goo into everything they touch. Do you see a similarity to Trump? Classless, trying hard to be seen as something better when the only thing that happens with time, if you let it sit too long is that it becomes less desirable, polluting everything around us.
America is trying to project class, but, as it tries to ooze out into the Gulf of Mexico, it is only showing itself as it is: not worth much.