Petition calling on House Speaker John Boehner to back up his outrage over renaming Mount McKinley

[FSogol]

to Denali by also changing Ronald Reagan airport's name back to Washington National Airport.

Join me and sign this petition:

http://act.credoaction.com/sign/rename_reagan_airport?sp_ref=147602182.4.15584.e.64459.5&referring_akid=.9350921.W8ewnq&source=mailto_sp

President Obama just took a small but important step for recognizing the history, culture, and human rights of America’s Native Americans when he decided to rename America’s tallest mountain, Mount McKinley in Alaska, to its original name of Denali.

But right-wing extremists in the Republican party, including House Speaker Rep. John Boehner, don’t see it that way. Boehner announced he is “deeply disappointed” in President Obama’s decision.1 But in 1998, John Boehner and his fellow Republicans in Congress weren’t so hesitant to remove a president’s name from a public landmark when they decided to rename Washington National Airport after Ronald Reagan.

That’s why it’s time to see if Speaker Boehner is willing to stay consistent and rename Ronald Reagan airport back to its original name honoring America’s first president, George Washington.

Tell Speaker Boehner: Rename Ronald Reagan airport back to Washington National Airport.

For generations, Alaska’s Native Americans have called it Denali, meaning “the great one,” while its official American name of Mount McKinley has had nothing to do with the mountain or its history – it was named Mount McKinley by an American explorer in the late 19th century, before William McKinley had even been elected President.2

The honoring of this mountain’s original name, and the native people who have inhabited that land for generations, was long overdue. But that hasn’t stopped John Boehner and fellow Republican members of Congress from staging political outrage and fomenting right-wing anger.

That’s why it’s helpful to send them a reminder that, in a brazen political act at that time, Republicans in Congress themselves pushed through legislation renaming an airport already named after America’s first president, George Washington. And unlike President Obama’s decision, which honors the local people and culture surrounding that landmark, the renaming of Washington National airport was met with resistance from local Virginia residents and leaders. It was also strongly opposed by airport workers themselves, given President Reagan’s role in breaking the air traffic controllers’ union and mass firing 11,000 workers.3, 4 Renaming the airport also resulted in significant costs that were left to local government in Virginia to cover.5

Given Speaker Boehner’s current outrage and disappointment at President Obama’s decision to rename Mount McKinley, it’s time to give him the opportunity to make up for his own past mistakes. Sign the petition and tell John Boehner he needs to be consistent when it comes to naming America’s landmarks.

Tell Speaker Boehner: Rename Ronald Reagan airport back to Washington National Airport.

Thank you for your activism.

LOL, I find most petitions to be a waste of time, but love this one. Help embarrass Boehner.

[spanone]

1. boehner will be a flea fart in the history books

worse speaker ever

[Ms. Toad]

2. Umm...somehow I think the name "Washington" referred to the city it serves,

not the first president (except indirectly).

[A Simple Game]

4. I think it only makes sense to name a major airport after the city it primarily serves.

Would it make sense to name the Philadelphia International airport Washington International?

[DFW]

13. Shhhh! Don't give Republicans any ideas

Next thing you know, Philadelphia International will be named Richard Cheney International Airport.

[AlbertCat]

15. Richard Cheney International Airport.

Dick International Airport.

[DFW]

7. Well, of course

Still, the city was named after------you get the point.

By the way, those of us who grew up in the DC area, and flew out of National for decades, NEVER call it "Reagan." ALWAYS "National." Reagan hated us, and we hated him. Calling our local airport "Reagan" was a perversion that only out-of-town Republicans would have thought up.

I was pleasantly surprised last Sunday when checking in for our flight from Seattle to Washington to see that the flight was listed on the departure table as going to "Washington National" instead of "Washington Reagan." At least one airline cares about the people they are serving rather than a bunch of Republican congressmen.

[FSogol]

9. My M-I-L always flies into there and wants me to pick her up.

I refuse unless she calls it by the proper name, "Washington National."

Both VDOT and the Metro balked at changing the signs when the change was made. It took GOP political pressure to force them.

[DFW]

12. I used to live in Fascist Spain as a teenager

Franco's fascists renamed all the major Barcelona streets after fascist heroes, and the main boulevard that bisected Barcelona, "El Diagonal" was named after Franco himself. The main drag near where I lived was called "Paseo General Mola," one of Franco's partners in the fascist uprising of 1936. After Franco died, the "Avenida del Generalísimo Franco" returned to "Avinguda Diagonal," and the "Paseo General Mola" returned to being the "Passeig Sant Joan" that it always had been. The locals always referred to the streets by their original names, even after 30 years of Franco's rule, and Catalan is still spoken there, even after 30 years of Franco's efforts to wipe it out.

I hope that in my lifetime, we can expect the same for National Airport. Get its name back, and remove the ridiculous Reagan statue at the entrance. Let them put in Orange County or Jackson, Mississippi if they must.

[FSogol]

8. City or 1st pres doesn't bother me, but I hope I live long enough to see that Statute of Reagan

at the entrance to the airport pulled down like this one:

[marble falls]

3. I'm signing!

[Duval]

5. Signed! eom

[oldandhappy]

6. Did, and sent an e-mail.

[mountain grammy]

10. Done! I never have and never will refer to National Airport using the name of the bad actor.

[rladdi]

11. Speaker Boehner is a WIMP. He has been the worst Speak of the House ever. He talks alot

but cannot delivery. But doing nothing and hijacking the House since 2010 is what the Republicans agenda is.

[AlbertCat]

14. Help embarrass Boehner.

Like he needs help.

[Jamaal510]

16. if the GOP

wanted to accurately memorialize Reagan's legacy, then they could have named a sewage plant in his honor instead of an airport.