2/3/2021

My Dear Friend & POTUS, JRB,

            Myanmar or Burma? Coup d’etat or seizure of power? Bad neighborhood or under-resourced community? Cultural awareness or social justice commitment? DJT State Park or Sojourner Truth State Park?

What's in a name? That which we call a rose / By any other name would smell as sweet…

            I am ruminating about words today, more specifically what we should call things. Education scholars get obsessed by naming and defining constructs, so you got my attention when you talked about “Burma” rather than “Maanmar.” My Friends call it “Myanmar,” but the new restaurant in town is called, “Burma” so I wondered if you were just being old-fashioned or if you were being intentional. My Google search took me to News 18 World, which explained the significance of the name. It said that after a bloody suppression, the military rulers used a “linguistic sleight-of-hand” to try to improve their image so they changed the name in 1989, “discarding a name handed down from its colonial past and to foster ethnic unity.” The article notes that the US has never accepted the name change, so contrary to my assumption that you misspoke when you called it “Burma,” you were spot on. Unfortunately, most Americans don’t know where it is, & don’t realize that the recent activities there have disturbing implications for the status of democracies in the world, so most of them won’t even notice what you call it.

            Do you think Shakespeare is right when he cautions that it doesn’t really matter what we call something? I think he’s wrong. Words set off associations in our brains so I stopped my friend from using the phrase “bad neighborhood” because & I don’t want to associate economically disadvantaged people with the word, “bad.” I’d be less inclined to go to a park with DJT’s name on it than one named after an abolitionist so I hope they change the name of the state park in Hudson Valley to one that will attract visitors.

            BYBS,