Goodbye, McKinley

With a stroke, President Obama changed the name of Mount McKinley to “Denali.” “Denali” is an Indian name, or indigenous name. “McKinley,” obviously, is not. No doubt, Obama thought he was “bending the arc of the moral universe toward justice.” (He likes to use this phrase, borrowing from Martin Luther King, who borrowed it from Theodore Parker, an abolitionist pastor.)

White people have taken from the Indians a lot. It’s true. I can understand how Obama was unable to resist a symbolic gesture. I can’t help thinking, however, that these gestures are much, much easier than combating alcoholism, obesity, welfare dependence, a culture of perpetual grievance, and suicide.