Where do name changes end?

I thought it was difficult to keep ideas straight with Donald Trump declaring that he wants Canada, Greenland, Venezuela and perhaps Cuba to all become the 51st state.

But it is becoming more convoluted to know what to call places or things when it deals with Mexico or Canada. Now that he has renamed Lake Ontario to Lake America and is mentioning changing the name of New Mexico to New America, where does it end? Do we stop calling tacos and burritos Mexican food? If we change that to American food, it will be very confusing not knowing what a restaurant serves. Do we change the name of jumping beans to American jumping beans? How about when there's a stalemate between parties and they cannot come to an agreement. Is that now an American standoff?

Will the Montreal Canadiens hockey team now become the Montreal Americans? How about the beverage company, Canada Dry. Do they become American Dry? Will my favorite whisky now become American Club? The upstate New York destination of Niagara Falls borders the two countries, Will they now each have an American Falls designation? Will those large feathered birds that are everywhere in our region now be known as American Geese?

We need to keep things in perspective. All of the above have been known by the original names forever and we need to not change more just to please Mr. Trump. Our three countries need to work together, as the three economies depend on each other, hence the NAFTA agreement. The leaders of the countries are acting like children trying to outdo each other. Perhaps we need to send the leaders to their rooms without dinner and tell them that they need to learn to play nicely together.

​Cary Barry

Mundelein