GREENFIELD, MASS.-Dear Mr. President,
With all due respect, it's the "Gulf of Mexico."
As the saying goes: you're entitled to your own opinion, but not your own facts. Recalling President Clinton's one-time campaign mantra "It's the economy, stupid!" and recognizing you as our once-again single-term president, "It's the 'Gulf of Mexico,' silly!" That's ground truth, derived from the endemic language of the place.
The lingua franca, the language of the people, knows no borders, sir. I live in the Connecticut River Valley. When I step across the border from here in Massachusetts into Vermont or New Hampshire, we accept and understand our shared commonality of place.
Perhaps that's the crazy reasoning for the Gulf of Mexico enjoying a real renaissance in nearly all my conversations. I can't stop trotting it out while on the phone or out in public.
"Chilly along the Gulf of Mexico," I'll chip in as I pass someone in a store or heading to the men's room. Same thing at the pub: "Quite the big tide along the Gulf of Mexico tonight!" It seems to hit a sunny chord of recognition with folks. They all just smile.
It's a good name, "Gulf of Mexico." Aztec derived. I bet even the fish like it.
Think of it like the moon. The name's not going anywhere. Long after we're dead, "the moon" will be there - endemically labeled by some long-ago people. And so will the "Gulf of Mexico."
Karl Meyer
Greenfield, Mass.
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