Mukilteo Musings

Politically Correct!! My post yesterday started me thinking about another characteristic of Seattleites. We tend to be picky about being politically correct and perhaps we go overboard. Sometimes, though, we need to go to one extreme to balance out the other.

For example, there are people who refuse to call Mt. Rainier "Mt. Rainier". The original Native American name is Tahoma (Tacoma, WA is so derived). The same thing has happened with Mt. McKinley in Alaska. Many think it should be called Denali. To be honest, "Rainier" sounds out of place among names such as Snoqualmie, Skykomish, Stillaguamish, Sammamish, Quinault, Puyallip, Humptulips, and of course Mukilteo. But I don't know, I still call the mountain, "Rainier".

My favorite flower has always been the "Indian Paintbrush". It grows in the high mountains of Montana and here mostly east of the Cascades. I have always loved the incredible shades of red from deep dark to pale pink. Our wedding invitation was designed with an Indian Paintbrush on the front; and I have a water color painting of a grouping in my dining room. Recently, while out to dinner in Seattle we noticed a local red wine called "Red Paintbrush" on the winelist so we ordered it. It was wonderful but as I read the name explanation on the back of the bottle, I realized my favorite flower had been renamed "Red Paintbrush"--probably to be politically correct. Hmm, I don't know! A beautiful Native American legend exists that I used to read to my children when they were little about how the flower became to be known as "Indian Paintbrush" and the word "Red" just doesn't have the same magic.

On the other hand, there is a hill--not really a huge mountain--near Yakima, WA called Squaw Tit!! Yikes!! I really wouldn't mind if political correctness caused a name change in this situation.