Memorials

Memorials are supposed to be just that, memories of someone departed. John Wayne Airport, Kennedy Space Center, Bondsteel Bridge, these memorials were named after great Men to remember their names and the contributions they made to society. All of them were dedicated to those individuals AFTER they died.

There are good reasons for memorials to be postponed until an individual dies. It is supposed to be an honor, not an ego booster. It becomes bothersome when you name something like the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail, Ted Stevens Airport or Don Young Bridge and then have to decide on new names when and if the still living (and still un-indited) persons of fame do something that moves them from famous to infamous, hero to heel. Aren't we lucky we don't have a Pete Kott Parkway or Ben Stevens High School to rename?

If we can't wait until people die to memorialize them I would hope that they would at least take it as a signal from society that it is time to vacate their public life, step down, bite the bullet, take the gold watch, hit the golden silk, or go sit on an ice flow and nobly drift out to sea, sparing us the burden of their senile shell of their former selves and the inevitable investigations, inditements and incarcerations that will follow when their foul deeds are eroded into view by the shifting sands of the political landscape.