A street by any other name

What's in a name?

Apparently, it all depends on where you want to put it.

Let me make it clear right from the start that I don't have a dog in the fight over whether to name or rename anything after John Mellencamp.

I don't know John. I didn't even go to school in Seymour.

I have certainly enjoyed several of his songs and videos, but I could say the same thing about dozens of other performers, and I don't know any of them either.

But there are lots of people around Seymour who do know John, as in John the human being, warts and all, not John the rock star, image and all.

I'm not one of them, so instead of an opinion, I'll just share some observations.

One is that, if you're going to name something after someone, it's better to name than rename. Let them have something fresh and new, that's all their own.

I came to that conclusion a long time ago, when the nation salved its grief over an assassinated president in part by giving new or existing structures the Kennedy name. I was just a kid then, and I certainly had no objections. I was grieving, too.

As the years went by, though, I looked back and rather wished Cape Canaveral hadn't been changed to Cape Kennedy. Canaveral was a 400-year-old name, with its own history and its own place in the world. (Actually, in 1973, the name of the cape itself was restored, with the Space Center retaining the Kennedy name.)

There was also Idlewild Airport, now JFK in New York. Idlewild supposedly is an Indian word, but I wasn't able to verify that. At any rate, it was a name worth keeping, one that could stand on its own.

There was nothing political or disrespectful in my wishing that these two places had not been renamed. I just felt that some things deserved their own place, and their own name, in history.

An exception to my dislike of renaming is when the place in question carries a derogatory name. When American soldier Lori Piestewa, a Hopi from Arizona, was killed, the drums beat in her honor, and soon, another honor was proposed: to change the name of Squaw Peak to Piestewa Peak. I think the name change is supposed to become official on the federal level this year. How appropriate it seems, to replace the offensive word "squaw" with the name of a woman who died in the service of her country.

If a street is renamed for John Mellencamp, I have one more observation: When I think of the times he sings about, I think of the days when kids "scooped the loop" and cruised along Chestnut Street. They caused traffic jams and drove adults crazy and had the time of their lives, as kids were wont to do in small towns all over the country.

It will be interesting to see how it all plays out.

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Persinger is community editor for The Tribune. She may be reached at (812) 523-7063 or jpersinger@tribtown.com. This column first appeared in part on her blog at www.tribtown.com.